Mass Effect: Salvation
by OptimumCamski
Summary: Galactic peace balances on the tip of a knife, as an ancient evil rises again. It threatens to engulf the races of the galaxy, and only one man can stop it. But that man is broken, beaten, and scarred. The first in a six-part saga of the life and legend of Commander John C. Shepard. First fan-fic, reviews and feedback are appreciated!
1. Prologue: Genesis

**At long last, after nearly two months of work, I'm ready to begin publishing my first Mass Effect Fan Fic. This will be the first part of a five- or six-part series on the life and legend of Commander John C. Shepard; currently one is being drafted, three are fully planned and sketched out, and two are in the conceptual stages. I typically try and work about six or seven chapters ahead of the publishing point, so that I can have a fairly regular update schedule that isn't subject to the mercies of my (hectic) work or school schedule.  
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**And special shout-out to the work of rangermike, Jack of the Blades, Sargo, Theodosius, NotCras, and Highjack, all of whose excellent BroShep/Liara writing provided inspiration and ideas for my own work.  
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**Usual disclaimers about copyright and resemblance apply.****  
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**_Mass Effect: Salvation_  
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_**Prologue: Genesis**_

"_For those battles which are most difficult, refrain from sending those whose souls are pure, for they are prone to losing faith in the heat of the battle. Send instead those whom have seen the depths of the abyss, those who have walked through fire and brimstone and lived, those whose soul is washed red in the ghosts of death and destruction. For they will never yield, they will never flee, and they will never disappoint you." –Primarch Victarian Tulius, Turian Military Theorist, General (206-279CE)_

**Space Station _Arcturus_ - Systems Alliance Headquarters - Arcturus System**

The room was completely silent, broken only by the noise of a dozen admirals, generals, and senior commanders of the Systems Alliance seating themselves around the massive oak table in the conference room. A three-piece monolith that had taken several days to move from Earth, each seat had a holo-terminal, several additional monitors, and enormous stacks of reports and papers. The twelve men and women seated in the conference room represented the full political and military hierarchy of the Systems Alliance – distinguished soldiers and politicians from across HSA space. Among them was Admiral Steven Hackett, the commander of the Alliance Fifth Fleet. A career soldier, Hackett had enlisted as a private, and steadily rose through the Chain of Command, until today he was one of the most powerful officers in the Alliance Navy. Only Admiral William Coryn – Commander of the Systems Alliance – and Citadel Ambassador Donnell Udina were considered above him in the chain of command.

Coryn himself stood at the head of the table, with Udina to his immediate right. The commanding officers of the major Alliance Fleets were also present, as were several high-ranking Alliance Army generals. Coryn motioned for those present to be seated, as two note-takers began typing away furiously on their holo-computers. "This meeting of the Joint High Command of the Human Systems Alliance is now in session. Present members include Grand Admiral William Coryn – Chief of Alliance Command Staff", the station VI intoned, "Admiral Vladimir Zhukov – First Fleet, Admiral Rachel Holmes – Second Fleet, Admiral Nitesh Singh – Third Fleet, Admiral Deng Hao – Fourth Fleet, Admiral Steven Hackett – Fifth Fleet, Admiral Tadius Ahern – Commander of Pinnacle Station, Rear-Admiral Erik Gregory – Acting Commander of Grissom Academy, Vice-Admiral Graeme Watson – Designated Commander Special Forces Training Facilities, Senator Corinthia Cardus – Systems Alliance Secretary of Defense, Commander David Anderson – first graduate of the N7 Program, Citadel Ambassador Donnell Udina, and Rear-Admiral Mikhailovich of the 63rd Scout Flotilla. Ambassador Udina has the floor".

Udina rose, his grey suit standing in marked contrast to the military uniforms around him. "Since First Contact nearly three decades ago, humanity has pushed near-constantly for greater influence in Council Space. In 2160, we formed the Systems Alliance Parliament, which allowed us to project a unified voice into galactic governance. In 2165, we were granted an Embassy in the Citadel, earning a place at the table of galactic politics. In 2171, we successfully gained colonization rights of the Skylian Verge, and our rapid colonization efforts there – and the fending off of Batarian attacks on colonies such as Elysium – proved that humanity could thrive and prosper in a galactic environment. We are proficient participants in galactic commerce, and the number of humans in the ranks of C-SEC grows every year. This year alone, we have begun to mend relations with the Turians – something we have had difficulty with since the First Contact War." On the holo, a series of images flashed before the assembled admirals – the inauguration of the first Systems Alliance Parliament, the opening of the human embassy, the opening of the Elysium Memorial. "The newly completed SSV _Normandy_, a prototype Stealth Frigate, is a result of human-Turian collaboration, and represents a significant leap forward, from both a political and technological standpoint."

Admiral Coryn rose, continuing where Udina had left off. "The _Normandy _represents a new era in Human participation in Citadel military and political affairs, yet it is the opinion of several at this table," Coryn glanced at Udina, "that our accomplishments thus far are but a fraction of what humanity deserves. It has long been the opinion of political elites within the Systems Alliance Parliament that humanity should seek to attain a seat on the Citadel Council, something that the Volus have been attempting to do since the Ptolemaic era of human history." Coryn was fond of reminding the more ambitious human politicians of this, as it helped to alleviate the sense of presumptuousness that seemed to dominate current Systems Alliance politics. "But I think perhaps our Defense Secretary can provide you all with more of the political details."

Senator Cardus now turned to speak, as she remained seated and facing the assembled admirals from Coryn's left. "eight years ago, the Systems Alliance Parliament identified four major hurdles to humanity having a legitimate claim to a Council seat. In founding an Embassy in 2165, we cleared one of those hurdles. We cleared the second when we signed the Treaty of Farixen a year later, which allowed for Dreadnought construction and the emergence of the Alliance as a major military power in Council Space. The third threshold we have to cross is ongoing: The continued proving of humanity's ability to survive, thrive, contribute, and dominate throughout the Galaxy; our commerce has grown, and our repulsion of Batarian attacks in the Skylian Verge went a long way in proving this." She paused, surveying the Fleet Admirals, her eyes coming to rest on David Anderson. "The last threshold is that of the Spectres. Udina's predecessor – Ambassador Goyle – attempted to cross this threshold eighteen years ago, when David Anderson was considered as a candidate for induction into the Special Tactics and Recon branch of Council Defense. Unfortunately, for various reasons, this candidacy was later rejected and withdrawn." Her eyes stayed focused on Anderson, who was obviously feeling a great deal of discomfort at having to be reminded of his failure.

Hackett couldn't blame him, given the circumstances under which the candidacy had been rejected. Anderson had been assigned to a deep cover operation alongside Saren Arterius, one of the most decorated Spectres alive. The mission – to retrieve illegal AI research data from a Batarian stronghold – had gone poorly, with hundreds of civilians killed in circumstances that still weren't fully known or understood by Alliance of Council Command. The entire debacle had been blamed on Anderson, and he had spent the next eighteen years with that particular albatross around his neck. Though Anderson had continued to rise through the ranks of the Alliance Navy – having recently been granted command of the _Normandy_ itself, he had carried that failure with him his entire life. Hackett felt the need to keep the meeting moving quickly, so as to minimize Anderson's discomfort. "Senator, Ambassador, if I may? While all of us are no doubt grateful for a reminder of our own history, perhaps it would be better to speak of why exactly we are here. I believe Commander Anderson has more specifics on the matter at hand, which he should address".

Anderson calmly collected himself, folding his hands together and surveying those present. "I was given command of the _Normandy_ three weeks ago, while Nihlus Kryik was appointed by the Turian Hierarchy and the Citadel Council to act as an assessor for the Turian contribution to the project. Two weeks ago, he contacted me. As you are no doubt previously aware, I was given complete operational freedom to hand-pick the crew for _Normandy_, for which I am very grateful". Anderson glanced at Hackett, who nodded his approval. Steven had pushed hard to allow Anderson to select his own crew for the _Normandy_; he felt it was the least the Alliance could do after the soul-crushing experience of 2165-6. "Nihlus has been lobbying the Council for some time, asking them to consider inducting a Human into the ranks of the Spectres. Two weeks ago, the Council agreed to his proposal, with several provisions. First, both Kryik and the Council asked that he be the one to act as the mentor to any potential Spectre candidate. Second, Udina and I were advised that the Council would favour this potential candidate being assigned as the Executive Officer to the _Normandy_, so as to allow for better monitoring of their progress".

The silence in the room was deafening. None of the admirals spoke, or even glanced at each other. Hackett glanced around the room; several admirals seemed to have guessed that this was the intention of the meeting, but others were caught completely off-guard. Each admiral had simply been tasked with compiling the dossiers of their best soldiers, commandos, and Marines. Indeed, Hackett only knew the truth – the potential for Spectre Candidacy – because he had long been a close friend of Anderson and Grand Admiral Coryn. The Grand Admiral rose to speak to the assembled leaders. "Ladies and Gentlemen of Alliance High Command, you have been gathered here today to make that choice. If we are to put forward an exceptional individual for Spectre Candidacy, who is it to be?"

Close to two hours of diplomatic, political, and personal bargaining and arguing followed. The back-and-forth was intense. Each Admiral had their two or three preferred candidates, and each argued passionately for their soldiers. Anderson – who ultimately had the leeway to pick who he wanted, but would regard the Command Staff's recommendation as sacrosanct – shot down several of the prospective candidates. He had clearly done his homework; he knew virtually everything about all of the potential candidates – their mission specs, their reputations, their proficiencies, even their psych evaluations. As each admiral's candidates were rejected, they gradually left the room. After two hours, only Coryn, Anderson, Udina, Cardus, and Hackett remained in the conference room.

"At this point, we have narrowed it down to three potential candidates". Coryn sounded exasperated; Hackett didn't blame him – the admirals whose candidates had been rejected would ensure that he was reminded of it for some time. "Let's start with Lt. Commander Gregorovich. Born on Earth in 2149, lived on the streets of St. Petersburg through most of his childhood, enlisted with the Alliance Navy at age 18 – gained his N5 designation inside of two years. He has impeccable credentials while on Patrols with the 22nd Frontier Division – three Distinguished Service Medals, two Bronze Stars, and one Medal of Valour. Gained his N7 designation in 2177, and comes with the full recommendation of Admiral Zhukov."

Anderson shook his head. "Out of the question. The first human spectre will be more than just a soldier – they'll be a symbol for humanity and what we can accomplish. I'm not letting Gregorovich be that symbol – not after what happened on Torfan. He sent virtually his entire platoon to its death, killed several dozen unarmed Batarians, and was at one time assessed as exhibiting psychopathic behaviour. He's an excellent soldier, but he's no symbol – not one you'd want, at any rate".

"Ok, so Gregorovich is not our Spectre Candidate. Second remaining potential is Lt. Commander Rachel Dawes. She was born on Mindoir in 2150, and enlisted with the Alliance at age 19 – Batarian slavers massacred the colony a year later. She's served twelve years of Patrol Duty with the 3rd Frontier Division – six Distinguished Service Medals, three Bronze Stars, one Long Service Medal, was part of the relief forces for Elysium during the Skylian Blitz. She specializes in Combat Engineering."

This time, it was Udina who interjected. "Six months ago I certainly would have considered her a viable candidate, but that is no longer the case. Connections have been uncovered that link her to the Terra Firma Party, which is notoriously anti-alien. I doubt someone like that would want to be a Council Spectre, and even if they did I doubt the Council would induct them."

It was left to Hackett to break the tension in the room. "What about Lt. Shepard?" Hackett pulled up his dossier onto the holo-screen. Udina glanced through it quickly. "He's a spacer, the son of Commander Hannah Shepard and Staff Lieutenant Thomas Shepard; he lived aboard starships most of his life. He was noted as having developed substantial biotic abilities in his youth. He enrolled in Officer's School at age 18, was completed after three years – graduated 2nd of 347 in his class. He earned his N7 Designation two years later and was assigned to the 3rd Advanced Recon Regiment. He was part of the platoon that was sent to investigate Akuze".

Coryn interjected. "I remember that. Entire colony went dark, we sent the 3rd ARR to investigate. Turned out the colony had been destroyed by Thresher Maws. Shepard was part of the first ground team – entire platoon was massacred in the space of a few minutes – he was the only one who got back to the shuttle. Underwent six months of PTSD psychotherapy. According to this dossier, he was transferred to the 9th Frontier Shock Regiment – completed seven tours of duty in the Verge – four Distinguished Service Medals, three Crimson Stars, one Silver Star – and is currently assigned to the Cruiser _Cairo _as a subcommander for the Marine Detachment. That's one hell of a service record, but still…"

It came as no surprise to Hackett that there were misgivings about the aftermath of Akuze. Anderson had warned of as much when he asked Hackett to put forward Shepard's name. Anderson had overseen N7 training when Shepard completed the program, and had taken a liking to the young, highly-skilled biotic. Hackett had first taken notice of him when he served in the 9th FSR, which was subordinate to the Fifth Fleet at the time. Shepard had never fully recovered from what he'd experienced on Akuze, and it had shown in the almost-fanatical way he had devoted himself to patrol duty.

Udina voiced the misgivings that Hackett knew he would. "He suffered severe psychological trauma as a result of Akuze. You remember all of that – the board of inquiry, the hearings, the commission into the disaster. Do you really think that that's the type of person we want protecting humanity?"

Anderson answered what was meant to be a rhetorical question. "That's the only type of person I trust to protect humanity. He's been to the brink of hell and back, he's seen how fragile our existence is. If anyone can act as a symbol for the resiliency of humanity, it's Shepard. I fully support him being named as humanity's candidate for the Spectres".

"As do I", a new voice entered the chamber. Standing in one of the entryways, a lone Turian walked into the Conference Room, sitting himself in the chair previously occupied by Admiral Zhukov. His presence took Hackett, Cardus and Udina aback – this was supposed to be a secure station, the most secure in Alliance space. "I apologize for having been this discrete in my arrival. While I certainly can get myself nearly anywhere on this station, given the proper clearance and equipment, I felt that a Turian on board an Alliance space station may be viewed with suspicion." Nihlus offered a handshake to all four of the officers, before returning to his seat. "Now then, you were discussing Lieutenant Shepard?"

"Yes, we were." Udina obviously did not approve of a Turian Spectre being permitted on board Arcturus Station, and he made no effort to hide it. "Though I must note that you have no sway over who we choose to make our Spectre candidate".

"While you are technically correct, you should be aware that I will have substantial influence once the process starts. My recommendations as this candidate's mentor will factor heavily into the Council's decision on whether or not to grant Spectre status. You would also do well to heed my advice; I know what the Council is looking for in their Spectre candidates." Nihlus regarded Udina coldly, before turning to speak directly to Admiral Coryn and Anderson. "There are only a handful of individuals that I would feel comfortable mentoring for induction into the Spectres, and I believe Shepard to be the most qualified of these. He has scars, of that there is no doubt, but he is a symbol of humanity's resiliency. Based on the reports I have seen, his combat abilities are exceptional, and he is among the more powerful of human biotics in Council Space. I would consider him an excellent addition to the ranks of the Spectres".

Defeated, Udina reluctantly agreed. "Very well. I suppose the four of you leave me with no choice. I'll put in the call."

"Shepard is currently stationed aboard the _Cairo_, and is on shore leave in Vancouver." Anderson replied. "Arrange to have him rendezvous with us at the L4 Station. Nihlus will meet him".

Nihlus nodded, "That I will."

**New Chaos Nightclub – Vancouver – North American Federated States – Earth, Sol System**

The music was heavy, the pulse constant and quick – the bass shifted constantly, creating a sense of anarchy. Mixed with the two glasses of scotch he had already consumed, it made for a satisfying level of disorientation. He had come here several times during his shore leave – he enjoyed the sound, the atmosphere, the feeling of the music combined with the alcohol. It helped him escape from the nightmare of what he had seen, what had happened on Akuze. Nearly six years later, Staff Lieutenant John Cameron Shepard was still captive to that fateful day.

Shepard was born in 2154 to Alliance Navy parents – his mother (now a Commander herself) had been a Second Lieutenant on the _SSV Verdun_, while his father was a Marine in the 2nd Frontier Division. Due to in-vitro exposure to Element Zero, he had been born with latent biotic tendencies, which manifested themselves at an early age. Both of his parents had seen action during the First Contact War – his father had been wounded during the retaking of Shanxi, while his uncle had been killed in the initial Turian assault. He had spent most of his young life transferring between vessels, never quite being able to call any one of them home. Yet from the moment he was old enough to comprehend its consequences, he had wanted to serve in space, to follow in his parents' footsteps: He wanted to be a Marine.

He had enlisted in the Alliance Navy as soon as he was eligible, attending Officer's School at Arcturus Station – specializing in Advanced Infantry tactics. He had earned his N1, N2, N3 and N4 Special Forces designations during Officer's School, and graduated 2nd in his class. He had trained intensively for the two years following, and had been accepted into the N7 Program at age 22 – the second youngest to ever receive the N7 Designation. He had been assigned to the 3rd Advanced Reconnaissance Regiment – composed entirely of Special Forces Marines, the 3rd ARR patrolled the fringes of Systems Alliance Space in the aftermath of the Skylian Blitz. He had been a squad commander in a platoon of fifty Marines – they were his brothers, his sisters, his friends. His rise through the ranks had been meteoric, and many had him pegged to become one of the youngest Admirals in Alliance history. Some even whispered that Shepard would be the one to cross the Rubicon that was the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Branch of Council Defense.

Until Akuze.

A relatively new colony in the Attican Traverse, Akuze had dropped off of the Alliance communications grid in the last month of 2177. Shepard's platoon – stationed on the cruiser _Warsaw_ – had been deployed to investigate. They arrived to find the colony deserted and destroyed – no one was left alive. On the first night on the planet, they had been attacked by Thresher Maws – gargantuan horrors native to Tuchunka, and the entire platoon had been massacred. Shepard had evaded death for close to forty hours, before successfully evacuating on a recon sweep by a shuttle from the _Cape Town_. When the shuttle had picked him up, he was the only Marine left. In a matter of hours, his entire life had been shattered.

Delirious, shell-shocked, barely alive, Shepard had spent two weeks in the Medical Bay of the _Cape Town_, before being dragged before the captain of the cruiser and seated in an interrogation chair. His memories of the event were hazy, and the trauma of watching his entire squad die weighed heavily on him. After two weeks of psychiatric evaluation in a hospital on Terra Nova (at least he'd been told it was Terra Nova), he had been summoned to Arcturus to stand before a military investigation into the disaster. He was treated as something of a cross between a mental patient and a criminal – how had he been the only one to survive, when so many others had died? He resented their questioning – he hadn't done anything wrong, he had simply survived when no one else had. Eventually, truth won out, and he was lauded as a hero for having survived; he despised it. He wasn't a hero any more than he was a criminal, and attributing what had been luck to some sort of skill infuriated him.

The incident had scarred him – more deeply than he knew at the time. He had become insular, detached – at least his mother said as much – and isolated. His sleep was haunted by nightmares, forcing him to relive the horror of Akuze on an almost-weekly basis. He had completed multiple Patrol Tours on various ships, but had avoided getting close to those who served under him. To his subordinates, he was seen as aloof and isolated, yet highly professional. To those above him, he was seen as unpredictable, and unstable. He had trained as a Vanguard – a close-combat biotic specialist geared towards an offensive role, and he was damned good at it. He sought no friends, no lovers, no companions – duty was his only lover, combat his only mistress. He had always been devoted to the well-being of those who served under him, but after Akuze that dedication reached near-fanatic levels. As he routinely stood in front of oncoming gunfire to protect those around him, he had also hardened himself to the advances of many of those around him. It was the only way he could hold onto his sanity, the only way he could close his eyes and not see the ghostly faces of his Marines staring back at him, accusingly, as if their deaths were somehow his fault.

Akuze had also marked the end to his rapid ascension through the ranks. While the Alliance brass publicly lauded him as a hero, they had viewed the PTSD-like symptoms, coupled with his bitter resentment of that laud, as unstable. His promotions had stalled, and while any superior he served under had noted with admiration his professional dedication to his duty, and his willingness to take absurd risks to protect those around him, it had never resulted in a rise through the ranks of the Alliance. While he had won commendation on several Patrol Tours through the Terminus Systems, he had watched as the most risky, the most sensitive operations had been given over to men with half of his ability – and in many cases twice his psychopathy. Men like Gregorovich, a now-infamous "Butcher of Torfan" who had massacred Batarian civilians whilst sending his own squad to its destruction. He had quietly won the admiration of key figures in the alliance – Steven Hackett, for example, but it had gotten him nowhere. Bitter, he had resigned himself to life as a Staff Lieutenant aboard a standard Alliance Cruiser.

Shepard surveyed the crowd at the New Chaos Nightclub. It was an upscale establishment, situated in the heart of the wealthiest arcology towers of Vancouver. The clientele was wealthy, and it showed in the bar prices – Shepard had spent close to a hundred credits already, and he was nowhere near the end of his night. He was dressed in his crew fatigues – the emblem of the SSV _Cairo_ was clearly visible, but he was the only Marine at New Chaos. His subordinates – the grunts of the Alliance Navy – went to seedier places during their shore leave; he didn't know where they were, and he didn't particularly care, so long as they showed up when the _Cairo_ departed for training maneuvers with the Third and Fifth Fleets in the Arcturus System.

The music reached its crescendo, as it built towards an electronica-fuelled climax. The pulse played havoc with Shepard's sense of balance and orientation, as the ringing in his head increased as the scotch took its effect. The bartender walked over, almost detecting Shepard's disorientation – that, and the fact that his glasses were empty, "you want another one?" Shepard nodded silently in response, pulling up his omni-tool and depositing another forty credits into the nightclub's account. When the transaction registered on the bartender's screen, he quickly poured another glass of Scotch: Palaven White, the finest Turian whiskey, aged for three decades in a dextro-charcoal barrel – the process of converting the DNA-base added substantially more kick to the alcohol than similar human varieties would have. The bartender studied Shepard curiously. "We don't get a lot of Marines in this place. Where's the rest of your crew? Shouldn't you be with them if you're on shore leave, enjoying time with your brothers in arms?"

Shepard slowly turned to him, and shook his head. "Shore leave in the seedier places that my subordinates prefer to go brings back too many bad memories. I prefer it here – plus, the alcohol is better."

The bartender chuckled to himself. "Most marines seem to have bad memories of their first shore leave. Somehow that doesn't strike me as too surprising. I understand completely." He didn't, but Shepard smiled back weakly, forcing a strained laugh himself. The seedier nightclubs in the Surrey district of Vancouver reminded him of the places he had gone with his squad when on shore leave on Terra Nova, as well as in Hong Kong and Bekenstein. They brought back memories of his squad – those eight months of excitement and contentment with his place in the Galaxy.

Shepard spotted the Alliance uniform from across the nightclub, as the distinctive arch emblem glinted in the neon lighting of New Chaos. He could make out the armbands of a Corporal – not the type of Marine to be found at New Chaos. There could only be one reason this Marine was in this part of Vancouver: Shepard. From across the dance-floor, through the mass of people, the Marine spotted Shepard, maneuvering his way around the outskirts of the dance floor. This gave Shepard enough time to hurriedly down the last of his scotch, and order a bartender to take the three glasses away; a high-ranking officer becoming intoxicated was something that was bound to become gossip, and Shepard wanted to avoid that – Akuze had damaged his reputation enough.

The Marine found his way to Shepard after several minutes. "Lieutenant John Shepard, SSV _Cairo?_" John simply nodded, gesturing for the Marine to continue. "Corporal Alfredson, SSV _Hong Kong_. I have a message for you from Fifth Fleet Command." The Corporal pulled up his omni-tool, the data instantly transferring to Shepard's as well. "You've been reassigned. SSV _Normandy_, under the command of David Anderson. You are to report to the Alliance Docking Bay at 14:00 tomorrow." With that, the Marine saluted, turned, and left the nightclub.

John turned to the bar and ordered another glass of scotch. He pulled up his omni-tool, and began parsing the information he had been given. He had been transferred from a Cruiser to a prototype stealth frigate. Of joint Human-Turian design, _Normandy_ was commanded by David Anderson – the same Anderson who had been XO of the _Warsaw_ when he deployed to Akuze, the same David Anderson who had overseen his N7 training nearly a decade earlier. It was a substantially smaller ship than the _Cairo_, but it was newer, faster, and possessed state-of-the-art stealth technology. He glanced at the title of his new posting: _Executive Officer_. It was certainly a step up from his current post on the _Cairo_, so much so that it surprised him – Executive Officer of a Frigate was jumping several steps in the chain of command. He didn't even have to report to the _Cairo_ before deploying to _Normandy_ – the crew of the Frigate would take care to move his possessions (what few there were), and the transfer was pre-approved both by his commanding officer as well as Admiral Hackett.

Satisfied, Shepard returned to his next glass of scotch. If he was going to be the XO of _Normandy_, he would need a lot of sleep tonight.

**Marine Barracks - Vancouver**

_He ran, not even because he had been ordered to, but because it was the only instinct his adrenaline-filled body would listen to. The destruction grew worse all around him, as the gargantuan horrors slaughtered what was left of the battlegroup; they were shredded alive by the spinning rows of teeth, dissolved in acid, or simply crushed by the sheer weight of the leviathans. To his left, half of his platoon sprinted for cover, as the remnants of the prefab colony were demolished around them._

_He saw Emily trip and stumble into the dirt, saw as Adam Erickson slowed his pace to help her to her feet, watched in horror as the shadow of an enormous Thresher Maw darkened the sky above them. Her beautiful eyes connected with his for a single moment, filled with fear, regret, and sorrow. Time seemed to slow, as he gazed on her beautiful face for what he knew was the last time. As darkness incarnate descended upon them, she mouthed three words: "I love you." Then she was gone, buried in an inferno of dust, ash, and teeth. Shepard turned away, his eyes filled with tears. He pulled his gloved hands over his ears, willing himself to blot out the screaming emitted by his dying love. _

_He scrambled through the nearest prefab shelter, joining Toombs and the remaining four marines of his platoon. He saw Erickson attempt to duck left into another shelter, but was forced to watch as it too was consumed in a burst of acid from the nearest Maw. He saw the pained expression on Toombs's face, and knew that the young corporal would never be the same again. If they got out alive, none of them would be._

"_Toombs, take Jade, Matthews, Malkin and Singh. Sweep around the far side and back to towards the shuttles. It's our only chance of escape! The Alliance needs to know what happened here!"_

"_Shepard, we have to search for survivors!"_

"_If we do, we're done for. There are maybe ten other marines still alive. If any of them made it out of the main square, they'll meet us at the spaceport. You heard Gillespie – it doesn't matter who we get there with, just fucking get there! Move, move, move!"_

_The five of them bolted through the back door of the prefab shelter. All around them, the night sky grew red with the fire from the smouldering buildings. They ducked, darted, twisted and dove through the wreckage of the colony, dodging bursts of acid as they made a desperate attempt to make it back to the shuttle. They were halfway to the edge of the settlement when the Maw burst through the ground directly in front of them. Malkin and Jade were killed instantly, as shards of twisted metal pierced right through their armour. He felt the impact of shards of rock and metal hitting him, heard the screams of Malkin and Singh, and then only silence as he lost consciousness. Falling, falling, forever falling._

Shepard woke rapidly at 07:00, his pulse and breathing rapid. He sat bolt upright, the sheets covered in sweat. It was still so vivid, after all these years, the horror of Akuze still fresh in his mind. It was early, and the throbbing pain in his head from the copious amounts of alcohol the previous night was certain to only get worse. Groaning in discomfort, Shepard forced himself out of the bed. It was a nice change from the sleeper-pods and bunks used on Alliance vessels, and his body responded well to it.

John Shepard was 205 pounds of almost pure muscle, sculpted and hardened by eleven years of military service, including six years of harsh Terminus patrol duty. As a result of his biotic abilities, his reflexes were incredible, and his aim with close-quarters weapons was dead-on every time. He redressed himself in his Marine Fatigues, before sitting back down on the bed.

Shepard had not told the psychiatric evaluators about the nightmares. They had started almost immediately after he was taken off sedatives in Scott Military General Hospital on Terra Nova. They came uninvited – memories of that terrible night indelibly etched into his mind. The fourth night in the Sanitarium had been the worst, but his blood-curdling screams had not made it beyond the bounds of his soundproof cell.

How long would it be before those images of fire and death stopped coming back to him every time he closed his eyes? When would he stop seeing the gruesome deaths of Erickson, Toombs, Adam, and Emily? Emily – the very thought of that name caused his stomach to recoil in pain. She had been the first person he had genuinely fallen in love with, something they had confessed to each other a mere two weeks before Akuze. The trauma and pain of that experience had caused him to wall himself in, to shut off his emotions from the outside world. Sighing, Shepard lay back down, yet could not close his eyes, lest the images of Akuze return again.

Two hours later he rose, stirring slightly at the sound of an envelope being pushed against his door. Striding across the room, he opened it to discover a thick envelope with Alliance markings on it. Opening the letter, his eyes quickly scanned the notice.

_Staff Lieutenant John C. Shepard – N7 Marines – SSV Cairo – Alliance Fifth Fleet_

_You are hereby transferred to the Frigate SSV Normandy of the 63rd Scout Flotilla, under the command of Captain David Anderson. Effective immediately, you are also promoted to Lieutenant Commander, and appointed as the Executive Officer for SSV Normandy. In accordance with this promotion, your Security Clearance has been increased to Delta IX, your pay to Grade XVIII, and your allotted Shore Leave to six weeks per Galactic Standard Year._

_You are to report to Normandy at the Alliance Dockyard on the L4 Orbital Station at 14:00 Hours today._

_Admiral Steven Hackett – SSV Everest – Alliance Fifth Fleet_

_Ad stellas, ad aeternitas_

Shepard opened the small package that came along with the envelope. It contained two shoulder patches – the three bars and star of a Lieutenant-Commander. A new Alliance insignia also fell into the palm of his hand – the word _Normandy_ in gold flanked by the three-star emblem of the Systems Alliance. Shepard smiled to himself. At long last, the curse of Akuze might be coming to an end.


	2. Chapter 1: Paradise Poisoned

_**Chapter 1: Paradise Poisoned**_

"_Her rash hand in evil hour_

_Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat:_

_Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,_

_Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe _

_That all was lost."_

**L4 Space Station – Earth Orbit**

Shepard had arrived at 14:00, and now found himself departing a shuttle on the L4 Space Station near Earth's Lagrange Point. Outside of London, Rio de Janiero, Cairo, and Vancouver, none of the Alliance dockyards were large enough to hold a modern Frigate, and the Vancouver dockyards were tasked to capacity, as both the Third and Fifth fleets were due to depart for maneuvers within the week. The L4 Station – built in the 2150s to accommodate increasing traffic between Earth and her earliest colonies – was of typical orbital design, and had been the inspiration for early developments in the Arcturus System. The station was built around a ring frame, with the outer wall made entirely of glass; the revolutions of the station allowed for simulated gravity without the cumbersome (and expensive) mass effect technology outfitted on warships or civilian vessels. Twelve military docking bays allowed for ships as large as Cruisers to take on ammunition and supplies from Earth, while a second wing of the station – currently under construction – would eventually allow for greater civilian traffic. Moving away from the hangar, he asked the nearest serviceman where the _Normandy_ was docked – Bay E27. Grabbing what little gear he had with him, Shepard began to move through the labyrinth of corridors towards his new posting.

As he moved closer and closer to the Alliance wing of the station, fear and uncertainty began to grip him again. He had never come close to holding such senior command of any vessel, let alone over one that was likely to participate in incredibly sensitive and risky black-ops missions. He had only been given a command of that importance once, and it had ended in disaster and death. To be stationed as the commander of a Marine Detachment aboard such a vessel would be terrifying enough, but Executive Officer? It was almost too much to bear, but the thought of betraying the trust of Anderson – someone he thought of as a mentor and friend, forced him to keep moving.

After several minutes, he arrived in a main concourse of the Station. A fully armed and heavily-armoured Turian was leaning against the bulkhead, eying him intently with his intense green eyes. "Lieutenant-Commander Shepard?" He simply nodded in response, "If I'm not mistaken, we're heading for the same place," the Turian extended a hand of welcome, "it's an honour to meet you, Lieutenant-Commander. I'm Nihlus Kryik, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Branch; I've been assigned to the _Normandy_ for the duration of her shakedown."

Something seemed off to Shepard. Spectres were elite commandos, the pinnacle of combat prowess and ability in Council Space. It seemed odd that a member of such a lauded unit would accompany a mere Frigate on its shakedown cruise. "It's an honour, Nihlus. No offense, but what is a Spectre doing on the shakedown cruise of a Frigate? Testing stealth-drives seems out of place for the usual work that Spectres do."

Nihlus smiled to himself, but subtly enough that Shepard didn't notice it. This human was asking the right questions, as so many before him had failed to do. It spoke volumes of his intelligence and inquisitiveness, both traits that were admired and sought after in the ranks of the Spectres. There was something in Shepard's blue eyes that suggested that he knew something was out of place. _Very good_, Nihlus thought to himself.

"True, and you would be right to think that," Nihlus said, falling back on the explanation he and Anderson had devised for until it was time to reveal to Shepard the honour he was being considered for, "but the _Normandy_ is no ordinary Frigate – it represents a bold new way of looking at space combat and espionage. Its stealth technology has both the Special Tasks Groups and the Spectres curious, and if it works as planned, both groups will want to try and replicate it. I'm here to assess those systems on the Council's behalf. The tactical applications of workable stealth technology are numerous, and I intend to test their limits. There is also the fact that this ship is the product of Turian-Human collaboration, something that is not lost on extremists in either race. I'm here to make sure that this project represents the starting point of something new between our two species."

John didn't buy it. While there were certainly groups among the Turians and the Humans who would gladly see the project fail, none of them came across as posing a significant enough threat to the supremacy of the Alliance in humanity's territory. "Is the threat from extremists that serious?"

"I'm not sure, but the Council and the Hierarchy don't want to take any chances." Shepard seemed to realize that he wasn't getting any further information from Nihlus, and he resigned himself to that. "Come, Lieutenant-Commander. The _Normandy_ departs for the Utopia System in a few hours."

Nihlus led Shepard to the observation windows, where he beheld the _Normandy _for the first time. Though he had seen a profile of the ship in the data sent to his omni-tool, it was vastly more impressive in real life. The _Normandy_ was quite different from most Alliance vessels he had served on. Unlike the elongated delta-shapes of Alliance vessels, the sleek dart-like design was decidedly Turian. Unlike the interlocking hull plates of Alliance vessels, the _Normandy_ sported smooth, metalloceramic ablative armour – lighter than Alliance armour, it was also much more durable. He could make out several GARDIAN batteries, a large cargo bay in the lower part of the ship, and several portholes in the midships area. She was an impressive vessel to behold.

"Impressive, isn't it," Nihlus asked him rhetorically; Shepard simply nodded. "It really shows what the Alliance and the Hierarchy can do when they stop trading cold war banter about the First Contact War. It's a shame that they didn't realize that earlier."

"You said it had stealth capabilities? How does that even work?"

"If you want a technical explanation, you'll have to ask the engineers – they're the best the Alliance has to offer; Anderson hand-picked most of the crew. The basic premise is that it blocks out heat emissions so that the ship doesn't show up on thermal scanners. Come, you can ask them in person in a few minutes." Nihlus led him through the airlock of the frigate, and into the decontamination chamber. White mist poured over them, as the scanning laser picked up and eliminated potential contaminating material from Earth. It gave him an odd thrill to hear the ship's VI chime in. "Decontamination Process Complete. Logged: Spectre Kryik and Executive Officer Shepard are now aboard."

**SSV **_**Normandy**_

Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko watched as Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau grinned like an idiot, practically jumping out of his seat as he watched the _Normandy's_ fuel gauges slowly ticked towards 'full'. "What are you grinning at, Joker?" Kaidan asked, though he knew the answer he would receive. Joker had aspired to be a pilot from the moment he had first been in space, and to be at the controls of the _Normandy_ – with a drive core three times the size of a standard Alliance frigate – was the apex of that dream.

"Nothing," Joker replied. "Just the last diagnostics have come back. We're almost ready to transfer full power to the _Normandy's_ internal systems. According to Pressly and Adams, the Navigation and Engineering plants register as good to go. Now, we're just waiting on Nihlus and the XO to arrive, and then we'll be off. I can't wait to put this baby through her paces, just the thought of working with this powerful of a drive core is giving me shivers."

"You may have said that once or twice, Joker." Kaidan responded.

"Hey, I've training on simulators for this for nearly three months. They just don't do this ship justice, and now we're almost ready to try the real thing."

"You're right there. Even if it's only a shakedown cruise in the Utopia System, it'll be nice to get away from the Sol System – the Third and Fifth fleets preparing for maneuvers has got the entire system crowded to no end."

"You've got that right. But still, a shakedown run in the Exodus Cluster strikes me as a bit odd. It's not as if there's the potential for stealth systems in a sector so close to Earth. If anyone asked my opinion, which I'll note that they're not, we should be out near Elysium, Akuze, or Mindoir if we really want to put the stealth systems through their paces."

Kaidan had to admit that it struck him as a bit odd as well, and Joker wasn't the only one to have picked up on it. Both Navigator Charles Pressly and Corporal Jenkins – the greenest Marine in the detachment Kaidan commanded – had voiced suspicion as to the nature of the shakedown run. Aside from Anderson, no one seemed to know the parameters of the cruise. And then there was the presence of a Spectre on board. While Kaidan was impressed with Nihlus's skills and abilities – and grateful to have them on board the _Normandy_ – it just didn't seem right for a Council Spectre to participate in something as simple as a shakedown cruise. Ostensibly there to oversee the ship's trials on behalf of the Council and the Hierarchy, virtually no one of importance on the ship believed that official story.

"Were you there when they announced who the XO is going to be?"

"I wasn't. Sickbay – migraine; my L2s were acting up again." While Kaidan had learned to harness his biotic abilities to great effect, he had been cursed with L2 Biotic implants, which had a long history of being unreliable and prone to flaring up. Almost once a week, Kaidan would suffer from devastating migraines as a result of the implants. Still, it beat the seizures and brain damage that many other L2s suffered from.

"That sucks. You sure they can't figure out how to stop those things?"

"Not without removing three-inch titanium implants from within my skull, likely causing traumatic neurological scarring and possibly leaving me clinically brain-dead. Assuming I survive that, they then have to do the process in reverse with four-inch titanium electrostatic implants."

"Geez, L2s definitely got a raw deal then. Anyway, our XO is some guy named John Shepard. He's N7, just transferred here from the _Cairo_. Apparently he worked with the Captain during that incident on Akuze six years ago. Word is he's also a fairly powerful biotic."

"Another biotic? It's rare that there'd be two of us on board a ship this size, probably just coincidence though, given that Anderson is hand-picking most of the crew."

The two were interrupted by the sound of the ship VI announcing the presence of crew members. "Logged: XO Shepard and Spectre Kryik are now aboard."

Both Kaidan and Joker turned at the sound of the generic female VI voice, and saw the aforementioned Nihlus enter the corridor in the company of the XO. From what he could tell simply through visuals, this XO Shepard certainly looked the part. Standing well over six feet in height, his hair was cropped back in a military cut, with a few days' growth of facial hair on his chin and neck. His eyes were an icy blue, and he gave off an air of cold military professionalism. Kaidan immediately saluted, identifying himself for the new XO. "Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko reporting for duty, sir."

"Stand easy, Alenko. There's no need to be that formal with me – until two hours ago you and I shared the same rank. This takes a little bit of getting used to. What's your station on board the _Normandy?_"

"I'm in charge of the Marine Detachment."

"Anything I should know about them?"

"They're an odd bunch. Some of them are veterans of patrol tours, but others – like Corporal Jenkins – are as green as grass. He's a good guy, but he's over-enthusiastic, and very much in awe of biotics. I dropped him on his head the other day as a warning, and it didn't even phase him."

Shepard chuckled quietly to himself at that. "I guess to those who lack them, biotics can be quite flashy. What variation of implants do you have?"

"I'm an L2," Kaidan said. Seeing Shepard grimace, he added, "but I'm one of the lucky ones. Worst I get are intense migraines, not like the scarring neurological damage so many others get. I heard from the briefing that you're a biotic as well. Which variation were you blessed with?"

"L3s." The L3 Implants had dealt with many of the problems that had occurred in L2s, and were thus substantially more stable. The trade-off was that L2 implants tended to spike much higher, meaning that the average L2 biotic was much more powerful, blow for blow, than an L3…if they could get past the potential neurological damage. "I'm looking for Captain Anderson. Where can I find him?"

"He's in his quarters, drowning in an ocean of official paperwork," came the irreverent response from the pilot's seat. Shepard looked at the direction of the voice, and found that the pilot had swung his chair around to face him and Kaidan. He gave the pilot a quick nod, noting the titanium braces attached to his legs. _I wonder why he needs those, _he thought to himself, as most conditions that would have once required leg braces had been cured close to a century ago.

"And you are?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Flight Lieutenant Jeffrey Moreau, Helmsman of the Normandy" the pilot answered seriously, before his cheeky and cocky grin returned, "But pretty much everyone calls me Joker. Feel free."

"I'll be sure to. I'm Lieutenant-Commander John Shepard. If you'll both excuse me, I need to speak to Anderson." He turned and walked through the CIC corridor, where the numerous gunnery and flight technicians were slowly warming up their stations in preparation for flight. He crossed next to the Galaxy Map display, and walked through the door on the left side of the platform. Shepard descended the stairs, coming to stand in the Mess Hall. Significantly smaller than its equivalent on the _Cairo_, the dim lighting on the Crew Deck made it seem even smaller than it was. Beyond the Mess Hall, a narrow corridor led to the sleeper pods – crews on ships this size typically "hot bunked", in an effort to conserve vital space and fuel. On the right side of the hall, he noticed a personal locker marked _XO Shepard_. After resetting the combination on the locker, he opened it to behold the few personal belongings he had that had been transferred from the _Cairo_. There were three photographs – one of him accepting his Officer's Commission, one of him and his mother at his N7 Induction ceremony, and one of him and a blonde-haired female Marine on shore leave on Bekenstein in 2177, from a few weeks before Akuze. He also found a full set of Onyx III Armour, two on-ship and shore-leave uniforms – battle dress and officer's blues, his Avenger IV Assault Rifle, Sokolov V Assault Shotgun, and his Kessler III Pistol.

"How does it compare to the _Cairo_, Executive Officer?" The voice of Captain Anderson was recognizable anywhere. It was a voice he had grown used to during N7 training, and again while serving aboard the _Warsaw_ as part of the Marine detachment. Turning, Shepard beheld his former instructor; the half-decade since the inquiry into Akuze had been kind to Anderson. A few lines of stress, an extra scar here and there, but otherwise the same man who had been the second-in-command on board the _Warsaw_. Anderson saluted, before offering Shepard a hand. "Welcome aboard, Shepard. It's good to see you again."

"You as well, Captain, though certainly under better circumstances than the last time we served on the same ship."

"Indeed it is," Anderson leaned in closely. "How have you held up since then? Do the memories still flood back," Anderson asked, his voice full of concern.

"Infrequently," Shepard lied. "It only tends to happen once every few months. Now it's just memories of being wounded on Makur Prime."

"I'd heard you'd been involved in something there. What exactly happened?"

"We were tracking a Turian smuggler ring on the edge of the Terminus. We got badly outflanked while attacking one of their safehouses. I took a pair of slugs to the waist – was out of action for close to two months."

"Figured something that light couldn't keep you down. I hear from Joker that you've already met most of the commanding faces on board the _Normandy_." He gestured to two officers moving through the corridor. "This is Chief Engineer Gregory Adams, and Chief Navigation Officer Charles Pressly." Shepard saluted both of them as they walked by, Pressly heading for the upper decks, while Adams took the Cargo Elevator down to the Engineering Bay. "You'll be hot-bunking a sleeper pod with Adams. While the XO on a Cruiser would get his own quarters, the Tantalus Drive Core's size means that we had to sacrifice the premium on crew space." Shepard nodded silently. There would be no problem – sleeper pods were preferable to the din and heat of the crew quarters on the _Cairo_.

Nihlus joined them, having remained behind initially to talk with Lieutenant Alenko. "Captain, your helmsman informs me that we'll be ready to depart inside of five minutes. Has the Mako been loaded in?"

"That it has. Our provisions have been loaded, and I've instructed Adams to engage the stealth drive once we're through the Charon Relay. We'll be heading to the Utopia System to perform some test maneuvers there. In the meantime, Shepard, I suggest that you get suited up into combat gear. Nihlus and I will brief you once we're through the Relay." With that, Anderson retreated into his Captain's quarters, while Nihlus returned to the Bridge to oversee the Relay Jump.

To say that Shepard was confused would have been an understatement. Anderson was obviously refusing to explain why he was being asked to don his full combat gear, while the rest of the crew was still in their standard shipboard fatigues. The only thing he could think of was that he would need to go groundside in the Utopia System once they made the jump. But why? The system was the heart of Systems Alliance Space – Eden Prime was one of the richest and safest colonies in the whole of humanity. Silently, he put on his armour, looking severely out of place amongst the naval officers around him.

As he prepared to ascend to the CIC deck, he felt the engines of the _Normandy_ roar to life. The strength of the motion's kick surprised him and threw him back against the bulkhead; the Tantalus drive core put the thrust equivalent of a cruiser into a vessel a third of the size and displacement, nearly knocking him off his feet. Through the porthole on the left side of the ship, he watched as the _Normandy_ undocked from the L4 Station, and as Earth slowly faded away in the background. Within minutes, as Shepard walked towards the bridge of the CIC, they were near the boundaries of the system, and Joker's voice chimed in over the ship's intercom.

"The Charon Relay is in range, initiating transmission sequence…We are connected, calculating transit mass and destination. Relay is hot, acquiring approach vector."

"Commander," said the young and precocious Corporal Jenkins as Shepard passed him near the Galaxy Map. Coming to stand beside Nihlus and Kaidan in the bridge, he watched as the enormous structure of the Mass Relay came into view, its blue iridescent light glowing in the darkness of space.

"All stations secure for relay transit," Joker announced as they moved towards the Relay, approaching it from a sweeping angle. "Hitting the relay in five second…four…three…two…one."

They were through, and onward to Eden Prime.

**SSV Normandy - Utopia System, Exodus Cluster  
**

"Thrusters…check, navigation…check, internal emission sinks active. All systems online and exhibiting normal functionality, the drift is just under 1500k," Joker said the last part as if extremely satisfied with himself.

"1500 is excellent," Nihlus said, his voice flanged voice betraying no hint of emotion. "Your captain will be very pleased." With that, Nihlus turned and walked back through the CIC area towards the Command Room.

Joker waited until the spectre was out of earshot. "I hate that guy."

"Nihlus gave you a compliment, so you hate him," Kaidan asked, his voice filled with incredulity. "Has anyone ever told you that you have a weird way of accepting compliments?"

"Hey, you remember to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom, that's good," Joker shot back scathingly, "I just jumped us across a thousand light years of the known galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead, so that's incredible. Besides, Spectres are trouble – I don't like him being here. Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid," Kaidan replied immediately. "The Council helped fund the project that built this ship. It's perfectly logical for them to send someone along to keep an eye on their investment."

"Yeah, well that's the 'official' story, but only an idiot ever believes the official story."

"I have to agree with Joker on this one, Kaidan," Shepard noted, causing both men to nearly jump, as they hadn't realised that he was there. "It is logical for them to send someone to monitor the project, but they don't tend to send Spectres on shakedown runs."

"That's true," Joker added, "and you don't tend to give ships a full complement, full Marine detachment, and full armament during their trials. There is a hell of a lot more going on here than we've been told."

Kaidan opened his mouth as if to retort, but was cut short by Anderson's voice coming over the bridge comms unit. "Joker! Status report!"

"Just cleared the mass relay, captain. We're on course for the Utopia System, and we'll jump to FTL speeds in another few minutes. Stealth systems are engaged, and we are running silent."

"Good. Find a comm. Buoy and link us into the network. I want systems status reports relayed back to Alliance brass ASAP. As soon as you've done that jump us to FTL. Also, tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the command room for a briefing."

"you get that, commander?" Joker asked as the comm closed with a soft beep.

"I heard. He doesn't sound happy; something must be wrong with the shakedown run," Shepard answered, before turning and walking back along the console corridor between the cockpit and the CIC.

"The Captain always sounds like that when he's talking to me," Joker said with a smirk.

"I can't possibly imagine why," Kaidan deadpanned back.

Shepard couldn't help but smile as he heard their banter fade into background. This crew was very different than that of the _Cairo_ in terms of its conduct. Because it was so small, interaction between officers and enlisted marines, as well as between different functional areas of the crew, seemed much more commonplace than on a larger ship with a crew of 200. He could hear Navigator Pressly chatting intensely with Engineer Adams over the comm system, and saw one of the young Marine corporals – Jenkins, it looked like, talking with the Chief Medical Technician, Doctor Karin Chakwas.

"What do you think, commander," Jenkins asked, looking at Shepard with barely-concealed awe. This was only his second posting since completing Basic Training, and he couldn't believe that he was assigned to a ship commanded by the legendary Captain Anderson, or that he was serving under as veteran a Marine as Shepard. "We won't be staying near Eden Prime for long, will we? I'm itching to get out and see some real action."

"I sincerely hope you're kidding, Jenkins," Doctor Chakwas chided him in her calming British accent. "Your 'real action' usually ends up with me patching up crew members in the infirmary or filling out death certificates."

Shepard could see what Lt. Alenko had meant – Jenkins was as green as the grass in all matters military. "Chakwas is right, Corporal Jenkins – you need to calm down. A good soldier stays calm and in control, even when under fire – in fact, especially when under fire."

"Sorry commander, it's just that I've never been on a mission like this before – I'd never even seen a Spectre before this."

"Until you hear otherwise, it's no different than any other mission, Jenkins. Treat it as such."

"Yes sir."

"You're from Eden Prime originally, aren't you Jenkins?" Shepard had scanned the personnel files of most of the members of the Marine detachment, and knew enough to inquire into their backgrounds. "I've been to Terra Nova, but never Eden Prime. What's it like?"

"Very peaceful sir – they've been really careful with development, no city noise or pollution whatsoever," Jenkins replied, with some of his pride in his green, idyllic homeworld creeping into his voice. "When I was a kid, we lived on the outskirts of Constant, and I used to climb the hill outside the town and just sit there, watching the stars. But even paradise gets boring after a while, so I enlisted in the Marines. Not really sure why it's chosen as our destination. It's one of the oldest and most stable colonies in Alliance space – the defense platforms are as good as those protecting Terra Nova or the core colonies in the Traverse. Why not send someone from CSEC or the STGs? Anyways, I should probably get to work. It's an honour to meet you, Commander." Saluting, Jenkins turned back to Dr. Chakwas as Shepard went through the door of the communications room.

In a way, Jenkins reminded Shepard of many of the Marines who had served under him on the _Warsaw_ – young, excited, naïve. They had all been so full of hope, so ready to live up to their life's aspirations, and then they had died in agony. How long would it be before Jenkins felt the same terror, the same nameless fear that every soldier felt during their first brush with death?

The command room was empty, save for Nihlus, who was standing facing the holographic monitor used for briefings. The monitor showed a view of the gleaming arcology towers of Constant standing amid green fields and the lakes of Eden Prime. At the sound of Shepard's booted feet on the metal deck, Nihlus turned and smiled.

"Commander Shepard, I was hoping you would be the first to get here," Nihlus said in greeting. "It will give us a chance to have a talk."

"What about? I thought that Captain Anderson was going to meet me here."

"He's on his way, but I wanted a few moments for us to talk first."

"Okay, what about?"

Nihlus turned away from him. "I'm curious about this world we're going to – Eden Prime. I've heard that it's quite beautiful," he said.

"They say it's a paradise," Shepard replied, thinking of how Corporal Jenkins had described it a few minutes ago.

"Yes, a paradise. That's exactly what I'd heard as well – serene, tranquil, safe," Nihlus said, "Eden Prime has become something of a symbol for your people, hasn't it? Proof that humanity can not only establish colonies across the galaxy, but also protect them and see them prosper. But how safe is Eden Prime really?"

"Certainly safer than the colonies further into the Verge or the Traverse, but probably not as safe as some would like to think," Shepard replied, his blue eyes going dark with memory. Everyone had presumed that the colonies of the Traverse would be safe as well – after all, the mighty Systems Alliance had guaranteed its security. But the seventh decade had brought that illusion crashing down. First Mindoir – attacked by Batarians, its colonists massacred or sold into slavery, then Elysium – attacked by pirates, barely spared the fate of Mindoir by a handful of stalwart marines, Akuze – destroyed by horrors so alien that even the Krogan, who had fought Thresher Maws since before their Nuclear Winter, knew virtually nothing about them; not even the Alliance had been able to save that colony world from its total destruction.

"The galaxy can be a very dangerous place," Nihlus agreed, "you learned that on Akuze, and you know it better than most of your people do. So much of humanity remains in the dark about the realities of the galaxy. They don't believe – or they don't want to – that stability and peace balance on the edge of a knife, held together by a handful of individuals who do what is necessary. Are you and humanity truly ready for this?"

"Ready for what," Shepard asked, even as he heard the doors of the command room open.

The door to the command room opened. "I think it's time we told Shepard what's really going on here, Nihlus," Anderson said, coming to stand nearby.

"You're right," Nihlus admitted, before looking back at Shepard. "As you might have guessed, our presence in the Utopia System is far more than a simple shakedown run."

"I had a hunch," Shepard admitted. "Ship Trials don't typically involve a full crew, a full weapons complement, a hand-picked officer corps," he glanced directly at Nihlus, "or a Council Spectre. What isn't the brass telling us?"

"We're making a covert pickup on Eden Prime," Anderson admitted, "that's why we needed the stealth systems operational."

"At the very least, I should have been told. I am the XO."

"I wanted to, Shepard," Anderson confided, "but this comes down straight from the top, information on a strictly need-to-know basis – only myself, Nihlus, and Adams knew. Five days ago, an archaeology team on Eden Prime unearthed some type of beacon during an excavation. It was Prothean."

Shepard's eyes widened in surprise. "Prothean," he repeated with a mix of disbelief and awe, "they vanished fifty thousand years ago. The beacon actually survived underground this entire time?" Though he wasn't an archaeologist, he knew that for something to have survived buried in the ground for so long was miraculous.

"Apparently. John, I don't have to tell you what this means. The last time we made a discovery of this magnitude, our technology advanced five centuries in the space of a month – it gave us the stars, the Citadel, the Alliance. That was just a small data cache, and a few old and derelict short-range ships. Who knows what we could learn from this beacon?"

"Obviously, this goes far beyond mere human interests, commander. This discovery could affect every species living in Council space," Nihlus added, recalling how the Council had reacted when told of the discovery. Shock and excitement only began to describe the reaction – he could understand it, especially given that the beacon seemed to be intact. All of the beacons they had found previously had been badly damaged by the ravages of time, the elements, or some supernatural force of unimaginable destructive power – any data they had once contained had been corrupted beyond recognition, or wiped entirely.

"Eden Prime's university is well equipped, but it doesn't have anywhere near the capacity to handle something like this," Anderson broke in, "we need to bring the Beacon back to the Citadel, both for proper study and for security purposes. John, you'll be in charge of the ground team when we arrive. Secure the beacon and get it onto the _Normandy_ ASAP. Nihlus will accompany you to observe the mission."

"Observe? What for?"

Nihlus nodded approvingly. "I'm not just here to recover the Beacon and oversee its safe delivery to the Citadel. I'm also here for you."

"Me," Shepard repeated in confusion. "Why are you here for me?"

"He's here to evaluate you. The Alliance has been pushing for this for a long time. We want more say in shaping interstellar policy," Anderson explained, "and the Spectres are the key to doing so – they represent the Council's power and authority. If they accept a Human into their ranks, it will show how far the Alliance has come."

"Not many could have survived what you went through on Akuze, Shepard. You showed extraordinary courage, and a remarkable will to live – an important trait. That is why I put your name forward to be considered for the ranks of the Spectres when the Alliance broached the subject with the Council."

Akuze was the last thing he would consider an admirable trait in a Spectre, let alone by a Turian. "Why would a Turian want a Human in the Spectres? Neither of our species has ever gotten over the First Contact War."

"Not all Turians resent humanity," Nihlus explained –not for the first time aggravated by the lingering animosity between his people and humanity. It served no purpose, save to fuel the rage of embittered men who couldn't let go of a regrettable past – one that should not have happened. "There are many of my generation who see the potential of your species – we see what you can offer to both the galaxy and the Spectres. We're an elite group, and it's extremely rare to encounter someone with the skills and abilities we seek – there are less than fifty of us in Council Space. I don't care that you're Human – I only care that you can do the job. If my judgment proves false, then you aren't a Spectre, but it will not be determined by your species."

"Just tell me what you want me to do," Shepard said, feeling more than a little humbled by what he was being considered for. He'd never thought of his survival on Akuze as a matter of skill – it implied that those under him were weaker than he was, and more deserving of death; that thought terrified and haunted him. He had done nothing more than Toombs, or Erickson, or Emily, and yet all of them had died. In his mind, it had been cruel and pitiless luck, nothing more.

"I need to see your skills for myself," Nihlus replied. "Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together, at the end of which I will make my final recommendation to the Council on whether to induct you into the Spectres. From what I have seen thus far, you will not disappoint me."

A Spectre! Shepard had once dreamed of being the first human to be inducted into their vaunted ranks, after his excellence in N7 Training. It had been the dream of every N7 Marine to someday join the Spectres, and many had considered Shepard's meteoric rise through the ranks of the Alliance as a forebear of greatness to come. But that dream had died with his platoon on Akuze; disgraced, declared unstable and negligent, he had long since given up on achieving the rank of Council Spectre. To have that dream given back to him now was overwhelming.

"Captain, we have a problem," Joker's voice abruptly came over the intercom.

"What is it Joker?"

"Emergency transmission from Eden Prime sir, you better see this," Joker said, his voice thick with concern.

The blood seemed to drain from Anderson's face, a chill going down his spine. "Put it on screen in the command room."

The hologram of the shimmering towers of Constant changed, to show a scene of utter chaos. A platoon of Marines were crouched behind cover, firing their weapons – the flashes of their shields indicating that they were being hit by something in return. The camera played to the left, showing blue-tinged lasers impacting the ground, as a series of rapid-fire pulse rifle shots downed several of the Marines. A female Marine in white and pink medium armour raced at the individual holding the camera, yelling at him to get down before firing at something out of view.

The camera rotated around to stare directly into the face of a terrified-looking Lieutenant. "This is D Company of the 212th Colonial Defense Regiment. We are under attack, taking heavy casualties – repeat, heavy casualties!" The din of assault rifles cut out his next sentence. "We can…" an explosion drowned out the officer…"..ed evac. They came out of nowhere – we can't"- a section of the officer's chest burst open, the legacy of a sniper shot that had torn through his shields and armour like a bullet through paper. The officer slumped over, dead.

The camera continued to play as the Marines continued engaging whoever was attacking them. The feed was interrupted by a deep, rumbling noise unlike anything Shepard had ever heard before. The Marines slowly ceased firing, and stared – as if transfixed – up, following the camera's gaze. An enormous vessel – unlike any they had ever seen – descended through thick clouds of smoke and fire. It was massive – probably two kilometers long, and it seemed to radiate power. It vaguely resembled a cuttlefish, and was wreathed in crackling arcs of red energy.

The camera reeled as fighting resumed. Multiple blue-white flashes erupted, and the bodies of Marines were seen scattering, as vague shapes came onto the edge of the camera's view. The feed immediately broke into static, as the transmission vanished.

"Everything cuts out after that, there's no comm traffic at all, or anything else. We're seventeen minutes out from Eden Prime, Captain. There are no other Alliance ships in the area, and the signal we picked up isn't transmitting outside of the system – something's jamming the comm buoys."

"Send the order for Battle Stations," Anderson's voice shifted into command tone. "Send a message to Alliance Command at Arcturus – tell them what's happening, and that we need the First or Fifth Fleet in the system ASAP. Then activate the Stealth Drives and take us in fast and quiet."

"Aye aye, captain."

"This mission just got a lot more complicated,"

**Medical Bay – SSV **_**Normandy – **_**18 Hours Later**

_Death…Chaos…destruction all around him. The city was on fire, the entire planet was on fire. All around him, the galaxy burned to ash. He couldn't see the source of the fire, but he felt its effects to the core of his being._

_So much death, and now he saw it: Synthetic. Unrecognizable by any modern standards, he had no idea what species or race these machines were, but he watched in horror as they cut down everything in their path. He could make out the shadowy forms of people, dying by the millions around him. So much slaughter…so much chaos. It was as if civilization itself was imploding inward upon itself, as the machines continued their path of unparalleled destruction._

_He tried to outrun the fire, as it consumed all life in an inferno of chaos and annihilation, but the flames were too strong. They licked at his heels, and then enveloped him._

_He beheld the void, infinite in its nothingness. No life, no energy. Silence. Nothing._

Shepard opened his eyes, the intensity of the dream lingering in his mind. His entire skull seemed to be throbbing, and the pain of the headache blurred his vision. He could see people moving all around him, though he couldn't recognize them. His ears caught the voice of the Gunner Chief who had joined them on Eden Prime – Ashley Williams, he thought her name was.

"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think he's waking up!"

Slowly, Shepard sat himself upright, his senses returning to him. He was in the Medical Bay of the _Normandy_, with several banks of medical equipment clustered around the table he was on. He could see Chakwas and Chief Williams in the room, as well as Lieutenant Alenko. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a filled body bag on one of the tables near him, with the words "Cprl R.L. Jenkins, Eden Prime, Utopia" stamped on the top.

The pain of Jenkins' loss hit Shepard full force; yet another Alliance Marine had died under his command, adding to the grizzly body-count of Akuze six years ago. He had sworn an oath – both to himself and the ghosts of his fallen comrades and friends – that he would never let another Marine die under his command. For six years, on high-risk patrols on the fringes of the Terminus Systems, Shepard had routinely thrown himself in harm's way to keep that oath – his shoulders and abdomen bore the scars that were testament to his determination to fulfill it. Yet he had failed to uphold that pledge on Eden Prime. Not only that, but he had failed in the worst possible circumstance. Corporal Richard Jenkins had represented everything Shepard had been when he first enlisted in the Marines – young, excited, optimistic, and enthusiastic. He had represented humanity's brightest hopes for the galaxy, and now they were gone – snuffed out in a hail of gunfire. Shepard silently cursed himself for having failed Jenkins, like so many Corporals serving under Shepard before him – Toombs, Emily, for having failed himself.

The mission had rapidly gone from bad to worse. Jenkins had been ambushed by Reconnaissance drones within minutes of them going groundside. Shepard and Kaidan had continued on, encountering a surviving Gunnery Chief of the 212 Regiment near the dig-site – Ashley Williams. The colony had been attacked by Geth – synthetic creations of the Quarians which had not been seen beyond the Perseus Veil for close to three centuries. They found that the Beacon had been moved from the digsite to the Secondary Spaceport. En route, they had found the majority of the excavation team – impaled on enormous spike structures. Within minutes of their death, they were transformed into cybernetic husks, lifelessly inching forward in an effort to destroy everything around them. Things had only gotten worse when they found Nihlus's body. Shot in the back of the head, his corpse displayed no hint of the fact that he had been one of the most elite operatives in the galaxy. A dock worker had identified his killer: A Spectre known only as Saren.

They had found the Beacon – intact, but somehow activated. Chief Williams had gotten too close to the beacon, which had started to pull her into its alignment. Shepard had reacted quickly, throwing her out of the way and taking the full force of the blast himself. It had filled his head with incomprehensible visions – death, destruction, chaos. That was the last thing he remembered, as he had lost all consciousness shortly thereafter.

"You had us worried there, Shepard," Chakwas's voice forced him back into reality. "How are you feeling?"

Shepard quickly buried the pain of this most recent loss – it would not do to display it publicly. Only a handful of people – his parents, Captain Anderson, the XO of the _Cairo_ – knew just how badly the memories of Akuze had haunted him. He intended to keep it that way. "Minor throbbing, nothing serious," it wasn't really a lie – most of the pain was emotional and psychological – but it wasn't entirely the truth. "How long was I out?"

"About fifteen hours," Chakwas replied, "something happened down there with the Beacon, I think."

Williams glanced at the floor, guilt apparent on her face. "It's my fault. I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way."

Shepard strained his shoulder, which still ached terribly from a shot he had taken from a geth sniper on Eden Prime; his armour had deflected it, but he'd definitely felt the impact. "Where's the Beacon now? What happened to it?"

Williams lowered her head, staring intently at the floor, guilt and regret all over her face. "The beacon exploded. A system overload, maybe. The blast knocked you cold. The Lieutenant and I carried you back to the _Normandy_."

Shepard nodded at her approvingly. "I appreciate it," Ashley seemed to smile lightly back. "Doctor, how bad is the damage?"

Chakwas immediately consulted her omnitool, pulling up several data files on Shepard's medical condition. "Physically speaking, you're fine – a few scratches and bruises, but nothing outside of your typical engagement. However, I did detect some unusual brain activity while you were unconscious – abnormal beta waves. I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, which is typically associated with intense dreaming."

In the corner of his mind, Shepard could see the images playing out again – a humanoid figure running frantically from a horde of synthetics, an enormous pile of corpses, a planet on fire. "I saw…I'm not sure what I saw." He focused intensely on Dr. Chakwas, his ice-blue eyes boring into the crew around him. "Death…destruction. Nothing's really clear."

Chakwas studied him curiously, obviously intrigued by what she had heard. "I'm no expert on Prothean Beacon technology, but I would guess that's what induced it. I'd better add this to my report. It may-," the door to the Medical Bay slid open, as Anderson entered the room. "Oh, Captain Anderson."

Anderson walked confidently into their midst, seemingly unfazed by all that had transpired in the past few hours. "How's our XO holding up, Doctor?"

"All the readings look normal. A few cuts and bruises, but nothing out of the ordinary. He should be fit for duty – I'd say that the Lieutenant Commander is going to be fine."

"Glad to hear it." Anderson turned towards John. "Shepard, I need to speak with you – in private."

Williams saluted the Captain. "I'll be in the mess if you need me."

Anderson waited until Kaidan, Ashley, and Dr. Chakwas had left the room, before turning once again to face Shepard. "It sounds like you and your squad got hit pretty hard, Shepard. Are you sure that you're ok?"

Shepard searched his mind for an answer. No, no he was not ok. The pain of losing another soldier under his command, the dream of being a spectre resurrected –and then gunned down with Nihlus, his mission a failure. No, Shepard was definitely anything but okay. "I don't like soldiers dying under my command, sir. Jenkins was the first casualty on my watch since Akuze." Shepard swallowed slowly, his every effort focused on purging the thought of that day from his mind. "I also don't like failing so spectacularly at such a simple objective."

Anderson looked at him thoughtfully. He was one of the few who knew just how dogged Shepard was by the legacy of Akuze. He had been the one that Shepard had told about the nightmares that haunted his sleep, the memories of the massacre refusing to leave him. Anderson was the only one who knew about the nine marks cut into Shepard's dog-tags – a constant reminder of his perceived failure. Anderson had felt a sense of responsibility afterwards – as XO of the _Warsaw_, he had been the last person Shepard and his squad had seen before they embarked for the colony. Shepard had been presumed dead when the _Warsaw _lost contact, and Anderson had been forced to watch as the cruiser departed from the system. When word reached him that the _Cape Town_ had picked up a single surviving Marine, he had known almost immediately who it was.

But he also knew how much it would change him. He could see the lines of sorrow and rage etched into Shepard's face, could sense Shepard's air of detachment and isolation around his fellow Marines. Anderson wasn't certain of all the details, either with regard to the massacre or to Shepard's squad, but he knew one thing for certain: The John Shepard whom he had beheld in the VA Hospital on Terra Nova was not the same man he had deployed to Akuze.

Sighing, Anderson put a reassuring hand on Shepard's soldier. "Jenkins wasn't your fault, John. You did a good job."

Silently, Shepard shrugged off the shoulder. He turned to face Anderson, his face almost quivering with anger. "No, Anderson, his death was my fault. I should have been the one to take point. Those should have been my shields that the recon drone burned through. And on top of it all, Nihlus is dead, and the Beacon is destroyed."

"I won't lie to you, John. Things look bad. You're right – Nihlus's death is a huge blow to us, as is losing the Beacon. Between that and the Geth invading, the Council's going to want answers."

"What are we supposed to tell them, sir? We saved the colony, but lost the beacon? I didn't do anything wrong with the beacon, and there wasn't a damn thing we could do about the Geth or that enormous ship that attacked Eden Prime."

Anderson nodded. "I'll stand behind you and your report, Shepard. You're a damned hero in my books – you saved Eden Prime from a far worse fate, at least the colony will be able to rebuild. That's not why I'm here. It's Saren, that other Turian." His expression darkened, and it didn't take long for Shepard to guess what Anderson was going to say next. "Saren's a Spectre, one of the best – a living legend. But if he's working with the Geth, that means that he's gone rogue. A Rogue Spectre is trouble – they're virtually impossible to track, and everything about them is classified. Saren's dangerous, and what's more, he hates humans. He thinks we're growing too fast, taking over the galaxy. A lot of aliens think that way. Most of them are either Batarians, or too quiet to do anything about it, but Saren has allied himself with the Geth. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I'd bet my Officer's Commission and Command that it has something to do with that Beacon. You were there just before it self-destructed. Did you see anything? Any clue that might tell us what Saren was after?"

"Just before I lost consciousness, I saw…something," even now, Shepard struggled to explain what it was he had seen. He wasn't even sure that he understood it. "I'd say it was a dream of some sort, but I was totally conscious as I was seeing it – perhaps some sort of vision."

Anderson looked stunned. "What of?"

"I saw synthetics slaughtering people, butchering them. But they didn't look like Geth – it was something else, but I'm not sure what." He saw Anderson move to speak, "and I know what you're going to say, Captain – that we should report this to the Council. I don't think that's a good idea. At best, they'll think I had a bad dream. Worst-case scenario, they pull my file and link this back to what happened at Akuze, and my career is over."

"I understand your concern, Shepard, but we don't know what information was stored in that beacon. Lost Prothean technology? Blueprints for some ancient weapon of mass destruction? Whatever it was, Saren took it, but you caught a glimpse of it. I don't know what it was, but I do know Saren. I know his reputation and his politics – he believes humans are a parasitic blight on the galaxy. We could interpret this attack as an act of war! He has an extraordinarily powerful warship, he has the secrets of the Beacon, and he has an army of Geth at his command. I don't think he'll stop until he's wiped humanity from the face of the galaxy."

"We have to stop him." The resoluteness in Shepard's voice didn't betray the feeling of dread sweeping over him. It was obvious that they had to stop Saren, the question was how the hell they were going to do it.

Anderson was obviously feeling the same. "It's not that easy. He's a Spectre. He can go anywhere, do almost anything, and everything he touches is classified. That's why we need the Council on our side." Anderson walked to the door of the Medical Bay, and turned to Shepard as he walked out of it. "I've contacted Ambassador Udina to arrange an audience with the Council. I'll expect you, Alenko, and Williams to be there to deliver your report. Report to the bridge in two hours – we'll be arriving at the Citadel then."

"Yes sir"

Still sitting on the rest table in the Medical Bay, Shepard folded his face into his hands. Whatever happened once they reached the Citadel, there was no way it could end well.


	3. Chapter 2: Proto Volcanus

**Chapter 2: Proto Volcanus**

**"**There is a special edge to the fires that burn in the bowels of the world. They have a habit of unmaking what came before them, and forging new steel from the fire." –Matriarch Delinaga(1106-73BCE)

**SSV _Normandy_, Citadel Docking Bay B27, Widow Nebula**

Shepard stood in the cockpit of the _Normandy_, proudly, yet almost regretfully, taking in the totality of the ship; _his _ship. The transfer of command from Anderson had occurred less than half an hour ago, and he was still overwhelmed by it. Less than an hour earlier, he had inducted as a member of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Division – the first Spectre in the history of humanity.

After the disaster of Eden Prime, the death of Nihlus and the destruction of the Prothean Beacon, he never imagined that he would be standing here. The meeting with the Council had gone poorly – the C-SEC investigation had been stalled by bureaucracy and the sheer secrecy of Saren's work, and the hearsay evidence Shepard had gathered had been rendered insufficient by the Councillors. Through the interventions of both Anderson and Udina – the ruthlessly pragmatic, optics-conscious Human Ambassador – he had worked through backchannels to establish contact with the C-SEC investigator – A Turian named Garrus Vakarian, and Urdnot Wrex – a Krogan bounty hunter tracking one of Saren's agents on the Citadel. They had ascertained the location of a Quarian on the Zakera Ward who had found information pertaining to Saren and the Geth, and had saved her from Saren's assassins.

The evidence was a recording of a conversation between Saren and Matriarch Benezia T'Soni – a powerful Asari political figure, presumed to be working with the rogue Spectre – referencing a device known as "The Conduit". They spoke of the return of the Reapers – a theoretical race of hyper-sentient machines, worshiped as gods by the Geth and whispered to be responsible for the disappearance of the Protheans 50,000 years ago. Though dubious of the connection to the Reapers, the Council had accepted Shepard's evidence of Saren's betrayal, and he had been granted Spectre Status as a result of his actions. Shortly thereafter, Anderson had been relieved of his command of the _Normandy_, transferring it to Shepard, with the task of pursuing Saren and bringing him to justice.

It felt strange to be standing here, where Anderson should have been standing. Though his old friend had spoken nothing but praise for Shepard, and enthusiastically turned the ship over to him, John could see the defeat, anguish and resignation in his eyes. In the course of his investigation of Saren, he had learned that Anderson had once been considered for the Spectres, but that Saren had sabotaged the mission. Even now, John could picture in his mind's eye the look of rage and regret that crossed Anderson's face as he told him about it. It had been a closely guarded secret amongst the Alliance – only a handful of the highest-ranking admirals knew anything about it.

"Hey, Commander, what's going through your head?"

"This feels wrong, Joker. Anderson should be standing here, not me."

"Yeah, well the Captain got screwed by backroom politics – live through a hundred battles only to go down in the boardroom – but that's not your fault. You've more than earned command of this ship, and the crew's behind you a hundred percent." Joker mock saluted Shepard, "now we've got a rogue Spectre to catch. Let's get going, and that's an order, sir!"

Chuckling to himself, Shepard walked back along the Bridge Corridor towards the Galaxy Map, crewmen at their monitors saluting him he went. Despite the added resources of Spectre Requisitions, Council Intelligence, the Salarian Special Tasks Groups, and the full might of the Alliance Fifth Fleet, they had startlingly few leads on Saren. He was a major shareholder in Binary Helix Corporation, and Udina and Admiral Hackett were pursuing an injunction against them in the Alliance Parliament to force them to turn over records pertaining to Saren. Reports were also coming in of increased Geth activity beyond the Perseus Veil – Attican Beta, the Armstrong Nebula, and the Voyager Cluster. Lastly, Udina had managed to dig up some intelligence concerning Matriarch Benezia – the other voice in the audio datafile that Tali-Zorah had managed to find. Her daughter – Dr. Liara T'Soni – was an archaeologist and specialist on the Protheans, purported to be on an expedition somewhere in the Artemis Tau Cluster. It wasn't much to go on, but it was certainly more leads than they'd had an hour earlier.

Cycling through the CIC, he passed Navigator Pressly, who had now been promoted to Executive Officer of the _Normandy_. One could detect the pride at the promotion in his every movement – to have climbed the ranks, serving on ships ranging from the _Agincourt_ to the _Tokyo_, to now sit as the XO to the first Human Spectre. Descending the winding steps to the Crew Deck, he quickly surveyed the changes to the surroundings. With his new command, he had inherited the Captain's Cabin from Anderson – a spacious mix of office and living quarters that provided ample space for sleep, meetings, and preparation. Lt. Alenko stood by the holo-terminal bay near the sleeper pods, completing reports on the Eden Prime Mission . The Lieutenant had proven himself a capable soldier and leader during their search for evidence of Saren's treachery – he was calm, level-headed, an adept tactician, and an excellent judge of character and ability. With some development and mentoring, Shepard could see him becoming one of the finest Field Commanders in the Alliance. As Shepard approached, Kaidan turned and saluted him.

"Sir," he said, greeting the commander formally.

"No need to be official Kaidan, at ease."

Kaidan seemed to relax almost instantly. "It never hurts to be safe when it comes to protocol. Is there something you wanted to ask me?"

"I'm just trying to get a sense of where the crew is at with regards to all of this." He could see Kaidan beginning to speak, "and this is off the record."

"To be honest, there seems to be some concern about the non-humans aboard the _Normandy_."

"Really? How so?" Shepard wasn't overly surprised, given the lingering tension between Turians and Humans as a result of the First Contact War, but he still wanted to know about it.

"It's not me, but other members of the crew seem concerned, particularly about Vakarian and Wrex. Obviously, with the Turian it's mistrust from First Contact – which didn't exactly go well when it happened, so that's fairly typical for an Alliance vessel. There are also worries about Wrex. The Krogan were one of the most warlike species in the galaxy at the height of their power, to the point where the Salarians and the Turians had to biologically neuter them. That sort of aggression can't be good for an Alliance vessel, especially given that most of the galaxy don't seem to be particularly fond of humanity."

"Nothing about Tali Zorah?"

"Most of that seems to the crew placing bets on what she looks like underneath her enviro-suit," Kaidan rolled his eyes, while Shepard only shook his head lightly. "I can see that you don't approve. Anything I should relay to the rest of the crew?"

"Nothing that I can't tell them myself, but I'll say it anyways. This vessel is of Human-Turian design, and is meant to improve relations between the two species – it's only reasonable that a Turian be on board for that. The Krogan aren't dangerous – so long as you don't get between them and ending the nightmare of the Genophage." Shepard could feel himself getting slightly more aggressive, as the dislike of non-humans had always annoyed him, be it by members of his own family, his squad, or his crew. "We're chasing after a rogue Spectre – one of the deadliest commandos that Council Space has ever known. We're going to need the best soldiers we can find, regardless of what species they are. Garrus proved himself an excellent soldier on the Citadel, and Wrex has more years of harsh, brutal warfare under his belt than the rest of us combined. I don't care whether they're human; I care whether they can get the job done."

"Fair enough, Commander. I'll relay that to as many of the crew as I can. I should probably stop wasting your time. We'll talk later." Kaidan saluted, before returning to his reports.

Entering the elevator, Shepard descended to the Cargo Bay. It was by far the most spacious part of the ship, with room for the storage of weapons, ammunition, supplies, and even an M35 Mako Light Infantry Vehicle. In the far corner, Ashley Williams was cleaning assault rifles, as well as inventorying much of the new gear they had picked up from Spectre Requisitions – top of the line commando weapons, which most Marines would kill for even a chance to see, let alone utilize. To his left, several off-duty crewmen were crowded around Urdnot Wrex, pestering the Krogan Battlemaster-turned Mercenary for stories from his time in the galaxy. Tali Zorah Nar'Rayya had settled into the Engineering Bay, under the guiding watch of Engineer Adams – according to him, she had acquired a working knowledge of the _Normandy'_s engine systems in a matter of hours, impressing the hard-to-please Engineering Corps of the _Normandy_ with her mechanical skill. Near the Mako, Shepard could only make out Garrus Vakarian's feet, as the former C-SEC Officer calibrated the descent-jets on the underside of the Mako. Shepard moved to stand next to the vehicle, peering under the tank to get a better view of Garrus's handiwork.

The Turian had proven to be something of an anomaly among his species. A dedicated C-SEC Officer, he had been put in charge of the investigation into Saren's activities, but had found himself stonewalled and hamstrung by regulation and red tape at nearly every turn. Chafing under the bureaucratic regime of Executor Venari Pallin, Garrus had jumped at the opportunity to join Shepard on board the _Normandy_. The Turian was possessed of exceptional technical skills, the best handling of a Sniper Rifle that Shepard had ever seen, and a strong understanding of the fundamentals of small-unit tactics. His dislike of conventional 'by-the-book' thinking, however, set him apart from most other Turian soldiers, and it was something that Shepard was eager to understand and know about.

"How are you doing, Garrus," Shepard asked. The question was immediately followed by a deafening *THUNK* as Garrus brought his head directly up into the Mako. A chain of expletives followed – so rich in depth and variety that several of the Marines gathered around Wrex turned to look. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Shepard said, barely able to contain his laughter.

Garrus pulled himself out from under the Mako, his look of annoyance magnified by the mark left by his contact with the vehicle. "That's alright commander. What can I do for you?"

"I was just checking in to see that you'd settled down alright in here. I take it the C-SEC transfers went smoothly?"

"Apart from the sheer amount of paperwork, there was no trouble. Executor Pallin was not pleased to see me go though, particularly to a Human vessel under the command of a Human Spectre". Pallin's dislike of the Spectres was well-known, as he considered their ability to skirt the laws of Citadel Space both reckless and dangerous. "It was definitely worth it just to see the look on his face when I told him."

"Glad to hear it went smoothly. You're an impressive soldier, and I'm looking forward to working with you."

"Same to you, commander. I'm looking forward to seeing how things are done outside of C-SEC. It will be interesting to not have to deal with red tape of a C-SEC operation, and I'm looking forward to being able to make a difference."

"Good to know. We're here to get things done, and so long as we know when to exercise restraint, we'll be fine. If we resort to any tactic, any cost, then we're no better than Saren."

"I understand, commander," Garrus leaned in closer. "What do we have in terms of leads on Saren? Anything to go on?"

Shepard nodded. "Not a lot, unfortunately. The only lead we were able to dig up was on the Matriarch, Benezia. Her daughter is an Archaeologist and a Prothean specialist, and according to Alliance and Council intelligence she is on a digsite somewhere in the Artemis Tau Cluster. I wish we had more to go on, but for now that's all we have. Plus, if she is a specialist on the Protheans, it's likely that Saren will be after her as well – if she isn't already working with them. Either way, I want to find out before it's too late."

"Excellent plan, commander." Garrus nodded his approval, before flipping down his blast shield to prepare for more work on the Mako, "I'll do whatever you need me to, sir."

"We'll talk later, Garrus, and please call me Shepard."

Re-entering the cargo elevator, Shepard ascended to the CIC, standing before the _Normandy's_ Galaxy Map. It was an ingenious piece of equipment, projecting the entirety of the Milky Way in a beautifully-rendered holograph – it could note points of interest, specific alerts from the Council and Alliance, calculate flight path trajectories, and rapidly transform into a combat-monitoring station that projected fleet battles for the Commander's viewing. Though simplistic compared to the complexity of FTL drives or the Mass Relays, the Galaxy Map had always filled Shepard with a sense of childlike wonder – here was the entirety of the known universe at your fingertips, a dream that humanity had pursued since the dawn of its intelligence. Pulling up the Galaxy Map, Shepard noted the Local Cluster – the home of Earth and the birthplace of humanity, and the Artemis Tau Cluster – a relatively unexplored region of space on the edge of the Attican Traverse. Standing confidently on the Commander's pedestal, Cmdr. John Cameron Shepard - the first Spectre in the history of humanity – spoke confidently into the communications grid to Joker.

"Joker, plot a course for the Artemis Tau Cluster. We have an Asari Archaeologist to find."

**Prothean Ruins, Therum, Knossos System, Artemis Tau Cluster**

Dr. Liara T'Soni sifted through the wreckage, cross-referencing the few items she had managed to find with the databases supplied by the Archaeology Department at Serrice University. Though this was her third solo excavation, she still felt the exhilaration of her first expedition to Prothean Ruins – the barely-containable excitement of being able to investigate the long-disappeared Protheans, the intrigue of the exploration of a dig-site, the methodical analysis that went into the artifacts recovered. Therum had not been a promising find – possessed of enormous mineral resources, most ruins had been stripped bare by miners and scavengers decades ago. The past two months had been spent scrounging through the various ruins that dotted the surface, vainly searching for one that had any artifacts to speak of. It had been a despairing search, and many times she cursed the reputation her precociousness had given her – one which relegated her to investigating archaeological backwaters like Therum.

Five days ago she had gotten lucky. She had stumbled upon this ruin almost by accident, while doubling back from a previous fruitless find. The upper levels of the ruin had been stripped bare to allow mining equipment to get at the lodes of Platinum below, but the lower levels were still largely intact. The round, white rooms that defined Prothean architecture went onwards and onwards, and some of the mechanisms for the lights and elevator even still worked. She had since found three Data Discs – extremely rare, these treasure-troves of information and data were highly sought-after by Asari universities back on Thessia. She had found several fragments of children's toys, the remnants of a computer terminal, several holographs of Prothean art, and two strong-boxes that had once contained data archives –though these had long since deteriorated. She had carefully organized and stored each of these in turn, and the data discs now sat securely in her own lock-boxes, ready for transport back to Serrice. It would take months – perhaps even years – to translate the data stored on the discs into a readable form, but every such translation always uncovered incredible advances in technology, biology, and offered more insight into Prothean society and culture. One of her first expeditions – a Serrice-postdoctoral excavation on a small planet in the Andali Nebula – had recovered the data disc offering insight into Prothean biotic abilities; these methods had been implemented into the training regimes of Asari Commandos, and had provided a significant tactical advantage over the other Council races.

As much as the workings of Prothean culture and society interested her, she had become obsessed with answering the one question that no one seemed to be able to pinpoint: where had they gone? For all of their knowledge about the inner workings of Prothean governance, society and military doctrine, they knew next to nothing about what had happened to them. They had reached the pinnacle of their existence – technology that turned light years into a matter of seconds, a powerful empire that spanned the entire known galaxy, and a society that was unified, robust, and powerful; and then they had disappeared - simply vanished, as if out of thin air. Not only that, but much of the evidence of their society had gone with them. Few buildings remained intact – and those that did had been flushed clean of materials and artifacts, the sites of metropolises were burned clean. To Liara, it almost seemed as if some unknown force had deliberately erased these fragments of the Prothean memory – there were things that they did not want to be known. She had first felt the spark of this question while she was completing her PhD – at the precocious age of 77. Immediately following the completion of her studies, she had begun to search for answers to these questions, finding small fragments of evidence here and there, relying on extrapolation and conjecture to try to determine the fate of the Protheans.

Her findings startled even her, and made her the laughing stock of the archaeological community. The wreckage of the Prothean Empire suggested that they were not the first species to suffer this fate – in an almost cyclical manner, a galactic civilization would rise to prominence, building on the technology of their forerunners, before being wiped clean from history. It was a theory that was almost impossible to prove – scant evidence remained of the Protheans, let alone those who had come before them, but signs and patterns amongst the ruins and artifacts – a reference to other, older societies here, a fragment of an item that did not match known Prothean designs there – slowly emerged, pointing to a cycle of galactic extinction.

Not that anyone had believed her. The theory was outlandish, and defied explanation and proof – it was simply a "gut feeling", as humans were said to call it. The fact that she was so young didn't help either; most Asari were expected to spend their Maiden years travelling the galaxy, joining mercenary groups or finding action and adventure, not sifting through Prothean ruins. Her age had deprived her theories of legitimacy, and she was largely spurned by the scientific community. Her status as the daughter of a Matriarch – one of the most politically influential ones, no less – had also created a sense of isolation and detachment from Asari society.

For now, she toiled in her dig-site on Therum, dutifully going through the catalogues of items she had found. One data disc seemed especially promising – from her limited knowledge of Prothean code and language, she guessed that it contained records of the last days of Therum – something that could provide incredible insight into the twilight of the Prothean Empire.

In the faint distance, she could hear the entrance to the Mine begin to open. Someone was here, but who? This was an isolated digsite – the nearest inhabited mining facility was well over a hundred kilometers to the northeast, and she had taken strict precautions against allowing anyone into her digsite. Glancing upward, she heard noises she was unfamiliar with – rather than voices, they seemed to almost be audio bits from a computer. She rarely had to deal with intruders on her archaeological digs, and even when she did her considerable biotic abilities were usually enough to overcome the problem. Retreating to her tent, she quickly grabbed her sidearm – a Kessler II Pistol – before returning to near the elevator upwards. She could hear voices now, making out what she thought was the tone of a Krogan.

"…out and search the area. Intel says the Asari doctor is in these ruins. Try and take her alive, but use force if she resists – I'll deal with her myself if you lot can't. Keep guard outside and watch for hostiles."

Liara began to panic. The only combat experience she had was against poorly-equipped human mercenaries, but never against the awesome and frightening power of a Krogan. Even now, she could sense the presence of biotics, which suggested that this Krogan was one of the much-feared Battlemasters – veterans of the Rebellions, they combined terrifying physical prowess with biotic skill and ruthless combat efficiency. Liara was outmatched, outgunned, and outnumbered – there was no escape. Save one.

Liara knew that each of the individual chambers in this ruin contained a form of shielding device, one that blocked access to unwanted visitors from the outside. As she frantically searched for it, the elevator to the outside began to descend into her digsite. Panic gripped her, as she saw the metallic form of a Geth emerge from the elevator. Geth were virtually unseen outside of the Perseus Veil, though every species was aware of their existence. Cold, unfeeling, its single luminous eyepiece looked towards her, a Pulse Rifle encased firmly in its hands. Liara felt her biotics flair, as she threw the Geth unit advancing towards her backwards against the far wall, shattering its head-plate into a hundred pieces. More descended towards her, and she rapidly found herself being overwhelmed by both weight of numbers and armament.

Desperate, she sprinted into the chamber behind her, searching furiously for the switch that activated the plasma-shield. At least a dozen of the synthetics could see her now, and she knelt in fear behind one of the monitoring stations, as gunfire flew overhead. In vain, she deployed a Singularity – a biotic black hole that sucked all solid objects in the area towards it; it managed to disable four Geth, but the remainder kept firing. Looking frantically around the chamber, she spotted the switch for the shield projector. Pulling a barrier over herself, she dove from cover towards it, making it just in time, as she felt the last vestiges of her protection evaporate in the face of overwhelming gunfire. Flipping the switch, she heard the distinct hum of the containment shield spring to life, and the clicking of Geth audio emitters in frustration. Satisfied, she turned to prepare her things to leave, only to have her stomach drop when she heard a sickening *click* that she hadn't planned for.

In seconds, she found herself suspended in a Stasis field , unable to move. In vain, she tried to reach for the switch, but found herself constrained by the mass effect field around her. Panic gripped her even further, as she realized what her fate would be. Either that Krogan would find a way down to the rear of the complex – which was unprotected – at which point she would be taken prisoner. That, or she would starve to death in this Stasis sphere. Looking skyward, she prayed to the Goddess that her life would not end like this.

**SSV _Normandy, _Knossos System – Fifteen Hours Later**

John crossed the Cargo Bay from the Elevator, his weapons firmly secured on his back. To his left, he watched as Urdnot Wrex slowly cleaned his highly-customized Hydra IX Shotgun, methodically checking that every mechanism, every flap and heat sink worked perfectly. Garrus was busy calibrating the landing jets on the Mako to the gravity specifications provided by Pressly, his Volkov VI Sniper Rifle resting beside him. Two crewmen were loading ammunition into the Mako – 155mm solid slugs for heavy targets, and 20mm Gatling rounds for the smaller weapons, while Adams primed the shield generators. Though Shepard had experience with Makos when deploying alongside ground regiments, its use on an Alliance vessel was a new concept to him, and he marvelled at the speed and finesse of the entire operation – an entire subset of the crew was involved in prepping the vehicle for deployment. Grabbing the remainder of his gear from Ashley, he turned to Pressly, who had descended to the Cargo Bay to help brief him on the planet.

"The Alliance claimed Therum in 2167, and it's a resource boon for Earth – titanium reserves nearly six times those of the Sol System. It's dotted with Prothean ruins, but most of them have been stripped bare by miners and scavengers," Pressly shouted over the roar of wind as the _Normandy_ entered Therum's atmosphere. "Couple of key concerns for your team out there: Firstly, it's hot - really hot. Nearly double the average temperature of Earth. The entire continent is dotted with lava flows, so you'll have to be careful when navigating the ridges to try and find this digsite. Gravity is slightly higher than on Earth – about 1.1G – and the atmospheric pressure is about 40% lower, so keep a ready hand on supplemental oxygen."

"What about intel on this Asari's location?"

"As far as we can tell, this entire planet is a goldmine of Prothean ruins. Grenado, Tanaka, and I managed to eliminate a lot of them from our list of potential sites, largely because records indicate that a lot of them have already been dug through. I cross-referenced this sector of the continent with a couple of databases from the University of Serrice – your Spectre access was quite helpful in getting those – and narrowed it down to two or three possible sites within ten clicks of the drop zone. Beyond that, we won't have any better readings to narrow it down further until we're inside the troposphere."

Nodding, Shepard thanked Pressly for his information, before heading towards the Mako. Garrus – satisfied with his calibrations, fell in behind Shepard as they and Wrex prepared to deploy. Shepard turned to Kaidan, "Alenko, if things go badly down there, deploy with a recovery team of Ashley and Tali." Kaidan nodded, before turning to assist in the Mako's deployment scans.

The vehicle proved extremely cramped with a fully armoured human, Turian, and Krogan on the inside. The main driver's seat was on the front-right, controlling the thrusters, direction, and speed of the vehicle. To his left, Garrus took the seat of the Gunnery Officer, quickly activating and initializing the weapons protocols. Unlike the armoured vehicles used by the Turians, the Mako lacked a fully function targeting VI – which would have allowed for computer-assisted fire control optimization, path projection, as well as assistance in identifying shields, barriers, armour, and weak points. Behind both of them, Wrex took the passenger seat, which ostensibly allowed for a mechanical engineer to maintain a watch on the engines. Shepard activated the VI and controls, causing the flurry of buttons and holographic gauges to light up in front of him.

"Welcome, commander," the Mako VI intoned, "preparing for deployment. Deployment from Normandy will commence in approximately thirty seconds."

Strapping himself in, Shepard prepped the Mako for ejection from the Normandy, familiarizing himself with the controls for the thrusters and mapping their trajectory. They had to hit this jump perfectly – too soon and they would end up amidst jagged rock formations that would be impossible to extract from, too far and they would end up in one of the many rivers of lava that dotted the landscape.

The map in front of him showed Joker guiding the _Normandy_ carefully towards the drop point, as the Frigate accelerated through Therum's atmosphere. Shepard entered their optimized descent pattern, and the Navigation VI quickly calculated the ideal ejection point. "Calculating optimized trajectories…Deployment in five…four…three…two…one…Deploying."

With a shudder and a deafening *CLICK*, the Mako shot forward out of the Cargo Bay, propelled by the rails it was attached to on the floor of the ship – the force of the launch pressed all three of them firmly back into their seats. Half a second later, Shepard felt himself go into free fall, as gravity took over – propelling the Mako towards the surface rapidly. He turned to Garrus, who was visibly shaken by the speed of the descent. "Let's hope your calibrations were accurate, Garrus."

The Turian looked as though it took every effort to nod. "Here's hoping. Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick."

Wrex's voice rang out from behind them. "Quit your whining. This is nothing – you're not even being shot at. That's when it starts to get fun."

Within seconds, the Mako's thrusters kicked in, jolting the crew back into gravity as their descent towards Therum slowed. Shepard could see the ground hurtling towards them, though the rate at which it did so was no longer perilously fast. After about five seconds of descent, Shepard felt the Mako's wheels connect with the ground, the shock absorbers preventing the crew from getting too bounced around. Over the comm link, the three of them heard Joker's voice chime in.

"Excellent drop, commander. How's everybody feeling down there?"

Shepard glanced around the cabin of the Mako. Wrex appeared fine – this was clearly not his first time deploying this way – but Garrus was noticeably shaken. His eyes were focused intensely on the floor, his breathing heavy. "We'll be fine, well – most of us will be."

Garrus looked up at Shepard, his eyes burning with discomfort. "Just-, just try not to do any flips in this thing and I should be fine."

Shepard could hear Joker chuckle over the comm-link. "Good to hear. Pressly and I picked up some really strange readings in the area; energy spikes are off the damn charts. They're emanating from a large area of hollow underground tunnel approximately two clicks southeast of your position. Might wanna check it out. Good hunting, Commander."

**Prothean Ruins, Therum, Knossos System – Forty Minutes Later**

Shepard holstered his weapon as he watched Garrus unload the final rounds of his sniper rifle into the now-overloading hulk of the Geth Armature that stood before them. The Geth had been numerous, but apart from the Armature that was presently smoldering into an ash-heap, they hadn't been much trouble. Garrus had proven an excellent shot with the Mako's 155mm cannon – even without VI targeting assistance – and Wrex seemed able to take virtually unlimited amounts of punishment, and to give it back in kind. Motioning to both of his squadmates, Shepard climbed the ramp to the entrance to the mineshaft. He set his omnitool to hack the door, and within seconds the vaulted steel plate in front of the entrance began to open. Garrus spun to face the mineshaft first, his eye firmly in the scope of his rifle, as his visor scanned the perimeter.

"I'm picking up some readings – looks like there's about two dozen life forms in these ruins, about half of which can for sure be identified as synthetic – my scanners can't do any hard readings on life forms deeper in the ruins. There's definitely a large power source of some sort in there, and something's eating a lot of power. Might be our Prothean specialist."

Shepard nodded. "The Geth won't be a huge problem. We haven't had any trouble with what we've faced so far, so we should be fine. Be on your guard around this Dr. T'Soni. We have no idea where she stands with regards to Benezia and Saren – she might be working with them, she might not even know about them. Unless she indicates otherwise, assume hostile intent." Wrex nodded silently, before the three of them began their descent into the Prothean ruins.

What little resistance they encountered was easily dealt with. By the time they reached a barely-functioning service elevator, fully a dozen Geth drones and troopers lay in heaps of scrap-metal behind them. Shepard could see a row of shielded chambers in front of them, seemingly untouched by the ravages of time. A soft hum emanated from generators, giving the entire chamber an atmosphere comparable to that of a laboratory on a human colony.

Wrex cast a disapproving eye towards his surroundings, shaking his head gently. "Sterile white walls, sterile background noise, sterile white chambers. The Protheans sure built things homey." Shepard shot Wrex a wry smile, as the elevator descended lower. He could see the beginnings of what looked to be a small camp; several tents were pitched around the perimeter of a lowered area in the floor, which was littered with storage containers and digging equipment.

Moving out of the elevator, Shepard quickly scanned the area. Someone had certainly been here recently, judging by the large number of footprints in the red earth around them. Garrus stood beside him, his sniper visor allowing him to take infrared and ultraviolet scans of the room. "The footprints aren't giving off a lot of heat. They've got to be ten, maybe eleven hours old. Definitely unarmoured Asari – Geth footprints are more distinctive, and the prints of an armoured Krogan or Turian would be deeper." The footprints led away from the camp, past the projected shields and into the interior of the ruins themselves.

"Damn it. Guess that means we've lost Dr. T'Soni's trail. That, or the Geth already got her, in which case we're too late."

Shepard was about to turn to find an alternate route when the voice called out. Frantic, desperate, and decidedly feminine, the Asari's call for help echoed through the ruins. "Hello! Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me?" The voice was coming from behind the barrier – the three of them quickly rushed to find its source.

Beyond the blue walls of the shield, suspended several feet off the ground in a projected Stasis Field was who he could only presume was Dr. Liara T'Soni, dressed in a white and green labcoat. Her eyes, the most intense blue colour that Shepard had ever seen, were focused intently on him, and she appeared on the verge of tears – though whether from elation or despair, it was difficult to tell. She called to them through the barrier. "Can you hear me? I can't get out; I'm trapped in this barrier!"

"Are you Dr. Liara T'Soni?" She nodded, "I'm Commander John Shepard, of the Systems Alliance. I'm here to help you."

Her elation was noticeable almost immediately. Colour seemed to rush back into her blue skin, and her eyes lit up. "Thank the Goddess! I did not think that anyone would come looking for me, or that you would get to me before the Geth did. "This thing I'm in is a Prothean security device. I managed to activate these barriers when the Geth showed up, but I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to. I'm trapped in here, and I have no idea how to turn it off. You must help me, please."

Shepard nodded, surveying the wall around her. It appeared to be solid and impenetrable – at least not by their own meagre resources. "I'll have to get past the barrier first. Any idea how to turn it off?"

"Not while I'm in this stasis field. You'll have to find another way to get around to me. But please hurry! There are dozens of Geth crawling around here, and I think there may be a Krogan Battlemaster in these ruins somewhere as well."

"Don't panic. We'll try to get you out of there as quickly as we can."

Wrex cocked his shotgun, flaring his biotics. "If we've got a Battlemaster in here, that's serious trouble. They're like me, only less loveable, angrier, and far more likely to kill you on the spot. Not sure how we're going to get arou-"

Wrex's sentence was cut short by a flurry of Geth gunfire, as the pulse rifles of a half dozen troopers sprang to life behind them in the digsite. Spinning and drawing his shotgun, he fired off several rounds at the nearest Geth. Reaching within his energy reserves, he felt the flair of his biotics overtake his body, as he pulled the Geth sniper near the far wall towards him. Firing custom-tooled Proton Rounds into another of the Geth troopers, he quickly switched hands, conjuring up a second blast of biotic energy, this one knocking the sniper backward against the wall with the impact force of a small truck and instantly shattering its head-plate. Three more Geth fell to Garrus's sniper rifle, while Wrex used his own Warp abilities to shred the bodies of those that remained.

The firefight finished, Shepard began to look for possible routes to Dr. T'Soni. Apart from the shield-covered openings in the structure, there didn't appear to be any immediate way around to the Asari. Through the rubble at the base of the structure, he could see the outline of another chamber that led through to the back. Coming to stand next to the controls of an enormous mining laser, Shepard had a sudden flash of inspiration.

"Garrus, any chance this thing still works?"

"Doesn't look like it's been used in a very long time, but there's always the possibility," his omnitool scanned the electronics systems. Seconds later, Shepard heard the low sound of the mining laser humming to life. The systems were engaged. "Yep, I'd say that this thing is good to go."

Shepard activated the control console, bringing the laser's drill to aim just below the platform they had stood on by the structure. Punching the targeting into the controls, he was greeted by the device's VI. "New User. Do you wish to establish labour profile?" Shepard sighed to himself, quickly pushing the 'no' pad on the holographic keyboard. "Very well. Calibrating Drill Firing Line to optimize firing line and energy. Path optimization will be complete in twenty seconds."

Shepard heard Dr. T'soni's voice from beyond the shielding. "Have you managed to find a way through the barrier yet?"

"I think I might have. Is there a method of moving between floors in the back of the structure?"

"There's an elevator that works fine back there. You can only call it to floors below your own, otherwise someone has to direct it to floors above while standing on the platform."

The VI indicated that the laser was ready for firing. Shepard motioned to Garrus and Wrex to get back, as both of them firmly shielded their eyes and covered their ears. "In that case, yes," Shepard shouted back, activating the firing sequence and looking squarely in the opposite direction. The drill laser hummed to life, rapidly burning through the rock beneath the structure. Dust billowed from beyond the laser's cutting hum, as the last remnants of resistance buckled beneath its awesome searing power. Within seconds, the way was clear, and Shepard, Garrus and Wrex descended into the level below the one holding the Asari doctor. Reaching the elevator, he quickly punched in the code for the level above. Soon, they reached Dr. T'Soni's chamber.

She seemed shocked to see them. "You are here! But how on earth did you get in?"

John walked to the lever that held the stasis field in place. "I improvised a door with a mining laser," he said, cutting the power to the stasis field. As the field released its victim, he reached out and caught the falling Asari by the shoulders. She was exhausted, pale to the point of emaciation, and her lips were noticeably cracked and her eyes dimmed from exhaustion and hunger. It was obvious that she had spent more than a day in the containment field, and he was impressed that she had not passed out from exhaustion or starvation yet.

"Thank-you, uhm.." she stared at Shepard curiously with her sapphire-blue eyes.

"Commander Shepard," he said without thinking.

"Thank-you, Commander," she said, giving him a faint –if exhausted and strained – smile.

"Just call me Shepard," John replied as he lowered her to the floor. He removed his flask from its holster on his armour, and passed it to T'Soni. She looked at it hesitantly, unsure of whether to accept it. "It's just water, there's nothing special in it." Reassured, she drank the entire contents in a single swig, not even pausing for breath.

"Goddess, that was the most delicious water I have ever had." The colour began to return to her face, as she slowly stood up again. Without the presence of the shield barriers between them, John could see now that she was very lovely. By his reckoning, she couldn't be more than five and a half feet tall, with a slim figure carved by the harsh elements as a result of months on Therum. The six individual folds of her sculpted head-crest blended near-flawlessly with her face, and she was the first Asari he had ever seen to have freckles underneath her eyes – it made her look oddly human. To his amazement, he found her eyes – a piercing, pure sapphire-blue – looking back at him, examining him just as intently.

His concentration was snapped by a sudden shudder beneath them. Rocks began to fall around the digsite, crushing several of the tents that had the Asari scientist had once resided in. Garrus and Wrex immediately pivoted, drawing their weapons. Garrus glanced worryingly above them. "How stable are these ruins?"

Dr. T'Soni shook her head. "Not very. This entire area is highly volcanic. That mining laser must have rendered these ruins even more unstable. We have to get out of here – the elevator behind us should get us to the surface." She began to walk towards the platform, before falling to her knees, exhaustion taking her. "I'm sorry Comma-, Shepard, but I don't think I can walk just yet." As Shepard lowered himself and placed her hand around his neck, she blushed lightly – her face turning a slight purple.

Shepard shrugged it off. "That's alright. It's not every day that I get to carry a beautiful Asari," as he wondered to himself "_did I just say that out loud?_" Liara blushed more deeply, smiled, and turned away from him. He managed to open a channel with the Normandy, ordering Joker to wait for them just outside of the entrance to the mine. Slowly, they made their way to the platform, where Garrus was quickly hacking the controls for the lift. Before long, the platform began to rise, as falling boulders buried the chamber they had just stood in. Dr. T'Soni seemed to sadden slightly, as she watched the work of the past several months be buried under hundreds of tonnes of volcanic rock. She turned to Shepard, her voice on the verge of tears.

"I don't understand. Why would they come after me? What did they want with me?"

"According to our intel, they were sent by Saren Arterius –a Rogue Spectre – and his lieutenant, Matriarch Benezia."

Liara's eyes widened, the colour draining from her face. Her knees seemed to lose what little remained of their strength, forcing Shepard to reach around and grab her by the other shoulder. She buckled, falling to her knees and avoiding the floor only because of his strong grip. "But…why? I haven't spoken with my mother in years, and I've never even heard of this Saren. What could they possibly want with me?" A single tear formed in her vivid blue eyes, "those Geth seemed as if they wanted to kill me. Why would my own mother send those…things after me?"

He placed both of his hands on her shoulders, turning her to stare directly into his eyes. "Listen to me, I don't know whether your mother sent these things after you, or whether Saren did. I don't know what they planned to do with you afterwards. But I think I may know why they were trying to find you. When we get to the _Normandy_, I'll tell you everything I know, Dr. T'Soni."

Strength returned to her, as she began to stand back up. "Okay, just get me out of this place, and I'll be fine. And please, call me Liara."

Wrex's voice pierced Shepard's thoughts, as his attention was forced back to their surroundings. "Shepard, we've got company."

Waiting for them at the top of the elevator shaft were a dozen Geth Shock Troopers and a Krogan Battlemaster. Weighing nearly one tonne in heavy armour, Krogan Battlemasters were feared across the Galaxy for their ruthless tactics, their legendary economy of motion, and their powerful biotic abilities. Between their heavy armour, their virtual immunity to the concept of fear, and their multiple secondary (and tertiary) organ and nervous systems, Battlemasters were a foe that was rightly feared across Citadel space. Once, when he was on patrol in the Terminus Systems in 2181, Shepard had watched from a landing shuttle as a Battlemaster tore apart half of an Alliance Marine squad before succumbing to ship-mounted cannonfire, fighting through the senses-numbing pain and rage to deliver blow after blow to the Marines. The one in front of him certainly lived up to that formidable reputation – he carried a heavily-modified Katana X Heavy Shotgun, and seemed to command an aura of fear – if not respect and awe – among his Geth companions. Around him, he could sense and feel the reactions of his own squadmates to the hulking behemoth in front of them. Garrus swivelled his Assault Rifle from target to target, clearly hesitant about who to shoot first. To his left, he could hear the beginnings of Wrex's rage, as he flared his biotics in a warning to this new foe. Next to him, he felt Liara recoil in fear, as she stood in near-awe of the vast power this Krogan wielded.

The battlemaster took a menacing step towards Shepard, as the Geth fanned out to surround them. "Surrender, or don't. That would be more fun."

Removing Liara's arm from around his back, Shepard instinctively pushed her behind him and into the central column of the platform, shielding her with his own body and weapon. "If you came for Dr. T'Soni, I'm afraid we've already claimed her."

The Krogan was not amused. "Not the answer I was looking for. What Saren wants, he takes." The Battlemaster motioned to the Geth around him, who promptly opened fire on Shepard.

The chamber degenerated into chaos; Wrex immediately charged towards the Geth, scattering several of them as his biotic-fuelled impact force sent them flying against the far wall of the chamber. Garrus backpedalled towards the rear of the chamber, drawing fire from five of the synthetics. Shepard quickly used his biotics to lift three of the Geth into the air, before throwing them backwards with the impact force of a small car; none of them got back up once they had hit the ground. The Battlemaster stalked the killzone, trying to size up his opponent as Garrus and Wrex continued to pour shotgun and assault rifle-fire against his Geth servitors. Shepard followed the Battlemaster, keeping himself between the Krogan and Liara at all times, testing the limits of the battlemaster's biotic abilities. He threw several Warps at the Krogan, all of which were deftly parried aside. As several shotgun blasts bounced away harmlessly off of the Krogan's biotic barrier, Shepard began to close the distance between himself and the Battlemaster.

Liara watched in awe and horror as Shepard threw himself at the Krogan, his biotics flaring as he threw a series of energy-fuelled punches at the Battlemaster. The Krogan absorbed several of these with his Barrier, before turning to dodge the last of them. Catching Shepard off-guard and exposed, the mercenary swung his shotgun to connect with Shepard's chest, throwing him back against the far wall. Within seconds, he was back on his feet, as he quickly shredded the headpiece of a Geth that was standing near him. As the Battlemaster advanced menacingly towards Liara, Shepard threw a series of Warps at the Krogan, who was forced to divert his focus from her and back to the human commando. To her right, Wrex had his hands full, simultaneously fighting a half-dozen Geth with a mixture of shotgun blasts, combat-oriented biotics, and the brute force of his own physical strength. Shepard continued to fire at the Battlemaster, distracting him long enough for Garrus to sneak around behind him. The Turian sniper quickly fired a pair of shots into the supplemental barrier-generators of the Krogan's shields, giving Shepard a moment in which to unload several rounds at the enemy. Several seemed to connect, as the Krogan reeled backwards from the pain.

The respite was only temporary, as the secondary nervous system rapidly kicked in, dulling the pain and sending the Krogan into a terrifying rage. Liara had never seen a Krogan go into blood rage before, and the mix of pain and fury emanating from the behemoth was palpable and enough to make her clutch inward upon herself. The Krogan turned, catching Garrus square in the chest with a Biotic Throw. Vakarian catapulted backwards, connecting with the far wall and slumping over – dazed but still conscious. The Krogan charged at Shepard, its speed surprising Liara, as the commander barely managed to roll out of the way. The Krogan turned rapidly, faster than Liara could have thought such a massive creature could roll, and again struck Shepard with the side of his shotgun. The Commander was thrown back, his shotgun flung from his arms. Landing face-down, Shepard struggled to rise from the force of the hit, as the Krogan advanced towards him. He willed himself to crawl towards his shotgun, but found the Battlemaster imposing himself between him and his weapon. In desperation, Shepard drew his pistol, firing a series of futile shots at the Krogan, who brushed them aside with ease. The blood-rage returning, he threw himself at Shepard with a fanatical force. Fortunately, he was able to roll out of the way with the last of his strength.

In desperation, Liara summoned every bit of biotic strength she could muster, trying desperately to break the Krogan's advance on Shepard. She threw a Biotic Warp at the Battlemaster, catching him in the back of the waist area. The blast did no noticeable damage, but it caused the Krogan to turn towards her. Irritated by this added nuisance, the Battlemaster reciprocated with his own biotic power, throwing her across the room and causing her to land near the back of the platform. He turned his shotgun on her, firing off several rounds. She managed to erect her biotic barrier just in time, but the exertion required to keep it there nearly caused her to pass out from exhaustion.

Finished with the last of the Geth, Wrex turned his attention to the other Battlemaster, his Hydra shotgun tasked to the brink of overheating as he tried to pull its attention away from Liara. The slugs did their job, as the enraged battlemaster threw himself at Wrex, the two Krogan locked in a vicious melee of blows and biotic attacks. Liara watched as Wrex brought his skull straight down onto the Battlemaster's face, causing the other Krogan to stagger backwards in pain.

Shepard regained his senses, dazed by the force of the blow. He was bleeding from a wound on his left side, and his skull was ringing with the impact of the Krogan's attack. In the corner of his vision, he could see Garrus struggling to get up, while Wrex and the Battlemaster rained down blow after blow on one another – both bled openly, but Wrex seemed to be gaining the advantage, his four centuries of combat experience having honed his skills and endurance. Mustering the last of his biotics, Shepard pulled his Shotgun towards him, before swivelling to face the Battlemaster, who was staggering backwards from a series of melees landed by Wrex. The Krogan turned, ready to once again charge at this upstart human who dared to challenge his supremacy. Shepard readied, himself, drawing into his reserves of energy and feeling his L3 Implants begin to flare up from the strain. As the Krogan charged, Shepard threw one last Warp at the monster, causing the Battlemaster to veer slightly off-course and away from Shepard – but directly towards Liara. Waiting a few precious milliseconds to time it perfectly, Shepard fired off one last round from his shotgun, catching the Krogan squarely in the chest. Bleeding profusely from the wound, the enraged Battlemaster tried to turn towards Shepard, but found himself lifted slightly off of the ground by Wrex's own biotic powers. Shepard responded in kind, throwing the Krogan against the far wall. He heard the distinct sound of the Krogan's skull cracking, and his foe did not get up when he hit the ground again.

As Shepard's breathing began to normalize again, Joker's voice came in over the channel. "Commander, the _Normandy_ is right across from the mineshaft, just above the refinery. We can't last in this heat for very long without beginning to warp the ship's hull."

The collapse of the ruins was accelerating now, as chunks of rock began to fall onto the platform. Wrex immediately made for the exit, as Garrus returned to his feet and followed suit. Shepard bent down and picked up Liara, as she hovered in and out of consciousness. Gently resting her neck on his right arm, he began to run for the exit, following Garrus and Wrex upward out of the mineshaft. His own wound burned on his right side, as the blood flow began to accelerate; his vision began to cloud, as the blood-haze began to dull his senses. He turned right and began to move back up the ramp, narrowly avoiding several shards of falling rock. His feet left the ramp and found safer ground just as the ramp gave way and fell into the abyss below them. Turning into the main entrance shaft, he saw that Garrus had reached the door and successfully unlocked it, as the Turian disappeared from view and into the sunlight. Wrex promptly followed suit, as Shepard carried Liara towards the exit. As they left the dark interior of the mineshaft, his vision was obscured by the blindingly-bright light of Therum's star. Shepard quickly crossed the distance between the entrance and the refinery, bounding up the stairs towards the top level. He could see Garrus and Wrex reach the _Normandy_, jumping the gap between the refinery and the cargo-bay door, where they were greeted by Lt. Alenko and Dr. Chakwas. Shepard sprinted up the last of the steps, launching himself full-speed into the Frigate's cargo hold.

Dr. Chakwas was waiting for him, looking with concern at the blood dripping from his wound. Kaidan stood next to her, as two crewmen applied Medigel to Garrus and Wrex. "What the hell happened to you guys down there," he asked as him, Shepard, and the near-unconscious Liara entered the Cargo Elevator.

The door closed behind them, as they began to ascend to the Crew Quarters. "We ran into a Krogan Battlemaster, and were nearly buried alive by the whole damn volcano collapsing on us," Shepard turned to Kaidan, "Garrus got hit fairly hard by a biotic attack, and Wrex seems to be holding up alright, " Shepard shrugged to no one in particular, "I guess that's the benefit of a redundant nervous system and tertiary sets of vital organs." He grimaced in pain, as his wound flared up again. "Tell Joker to plot a course for Arcturus. Remain in orbit there until I'm well enough to assume command again."

When the elevator reached the crew deck, Kaidan immediately made for the CIC to inform Joker that he was clear to depart Therum, while Shepard carried Liara to the medical bay. Her eyes fluttered open, as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

"Shepard..." her eyes glazed over, numbed by the pain of starvation and her wounds, "where are we? Are we away from those cursed ruins yet?"

The door to the med bay opened, and Shepard carried her through. "It's alright. We're on board the SSV _Normandy_ now. You're going to be okay."

She seemed to relax, as her neck muscles went limp in Shepard's grasp. Gently, he lowered her onto the medical table. She was fading fast, but she would survive. "Thank-you…Shepard…" her breathing became more steady, as she drifted off, "for…saving…my life." Smiling, she at last lost consciousness.

The pain returned to Shepard, the gash in his left side throbbing intensely, blurring his vision and dulling his movements. Clumsily, he made his way to the right side of the medical bay, grabbing one of the capsules of emergency painkiller – reserved for when medigel was insufficient to patch a wound, it numbed the pain and prevented the nervous system from shocking the heart into cardiac arrest. Shepard quickly removed the cap of one of the capsules, grimacing at the sight of the three inch-long needle that shimmered at its end. He had always hated these things, and he detested using them and did so sparingly. Bracing himself, he stabbed the needle into his wound, roaring in agony as he pressed down on the injection button with every ounce of his strength. the pain dispersed rapidy, as a numb feeling washed over his senses. The pain gone, his exhaustion returned to him. He slumped back on the medical table, his breathing lessening as he slowly drifted into a morphine-induced sleep.


	4. Chapter 3: New Beginnings

**A huge thank-you to all of the reviews thus far; they have been enormously helpful in tweaking my writing, as well as allowing for closer copyediting of things like tone, character development and idiosyncrasies.**

**The draft is coming along quite nicely - I'm currently a third of the way through the ninth chapter (fourteen in all if all goes to plan) and sitting at 82,000 words of writing. Thanks for the support, reviews, and reading thus far. I bring you chapter three!  
**

_**Chapter 3: New Beginnings**_

"When the Goddess seals the hangar, She opens an airlock." –Asari Proverb

**Medical Bay, SSV Normandy - Macedon System, Artemis Tau Cluster – 19 Hours Later**

Liara slowly opened her eyes, adjusting to the dim light of her new surroundings. The bed she was resting on was cold, a solid polymetallic alloy, and the lights were turned down so far that they barely emanated a glow in the room. The chamber reeked of antiseptic, and the hum of monitoring equipment led her to believe that she was in a hospital. Glancing down, she saw a single intravenous line in her left hand, leading to several containers of Asari blood. A second was attached to the bend in her arm, leading to what she presumed was some form of painkiller. She tried to get a sense of her surroundings – she was still in the researcher clothes she had been wearing on Therum, and she faintly saw her boots against the far wall out of the corner of her eye. It was then that she felt it, the slight vibration of her surroundings, the dull hum of a power generator or an engine. This was the medical bay of a spacecraft, and as she looked in the opposite direction she saw the symbol of the Systems Alliance out of the corner of her eye. Yet this ship was strange; she could barely hear the noise of the engine – it was so quiet as to almost be eerie.

Slowly, she began to sit up, taking in her surroundings. Five other medical beds were empty, while surgical equipment rested against the wall opposite her. She couldn't see any additional bandages on her, though the operating table next to her was covered with dried blood. Slowly, she began to remove the medical tape around one of the IVs attached to her arm.

"Dr. T'Soni, I'm going to have to ask you to leave those in a while longer," the voice caused Liara to startle so much that she nearly fell off of the bed. She turned to see a Human doctor standing in front of her. She was an older woman, her hair greying and cut short to Alliance regulations. She wore an armpatch with the letters "C.M.T." around her right arm. She moved to stand beside Liara, scanning her vital signs with her omnitool. "You had us worried there for quite some time. Your nutrient levels were reaching dangerously-low levels – another few hours and you probably would have succumbed to the heat or the dehydration." The medical officer extender her hand in greeting. "Doctor Karin Chakwas. I'm Chief Medical Technician on the _Normandy_."

Liara rubbed her eyes, her senses at last returning to her in full. "The _Normandy_? The commander of this ship is-"

"John Shepard. He, Garrus Vakarian, and Urdnot Wrex found you on Therum in that dangerous Prothean ruin." She crossed her arms, her eyes scanning over Liara's figure. "You're in much better shape than you were, but I'm going to have to ask you to stay in the medical bay for another few hours so I can monitor your vital signs. I promised the Commander I'd take care of you."

Liara nodded her head slowly, accepting that the doctor almost certainly knew what was optimal for her. "How long was I unconscious?"

"Nineteen Galactic Standard Hours and thirty-seven minutes."

Liara's eyes widened. "I was out that long?"

Dr. Chakwas nodded, "I expected you to be out longer, after what you'd been through. When I found you here you had lost consciousness, and the commander was passed out from exhaustion and blood loss," she gestured at the towels covered in dried blood on the med-table beside her.

"Oh Goddess," Liara's face went pale, "is he alright? Is he hurt?"

Chakwas put a hand on her shoulder, easing her back onto the med-table. "He's fine now – he's been up for about six hours, but he was pretty badly wounded when you two got in here. He's come to check on you every hour," Chakwas chuckled as Liara blushed intensely, "if you don't mind my asking, what on earth happened down there?"

Liara lowered her head, bringing her feet back up onto the table. "On our way out of the mineshaft, we were attacked by Geth and a Krogan Battlemaster. He fought it, and…" she struggled to find the words to describe it, "it was incredible. I've never seen anyone fight like that before – him or the Turian or the other Krogan." Her words became broken as she drifted back to sleep, a fresh wave of exhaustion hitting her. "Tell…Shepard…thank-you…again."

Three hours later she woke again, now fully rested from her ordeal. Slowly, she shifted herself so that her feet were dangling just above the floor of the ship, hesitant to put weight on them again. Connecting with the floor, her knees held in place – that was a good sign. Slowly, deliberately, she shuffled across the room to the table where her Savant V omnitool rested against the wall. An incredibly sophisticated design by the Serrice Council, it had been a gift from her mother when she graduated from university; it had been the last thing her mother had ever given her – the two had had a falling out shortly thereafter.

Liara slowly walked out of the Medical Bay, and found herself in the centre of the crew deck of the _Normandy_. The Mess Hall was deserted, with a large table with seats for eight squarely in the middle of the chamber; holo-vids clustered around the chairs, their dim orange glow the only soft light in the darkened room. To her right, Liara noticed several storage lockers, of the type used by crewmen to store tools, armour, and weapons. She looked at each of them intently, studying the names on each of the lockers in turn: XO C. Pressly, CEO G. Adams, CMT K. Chakwas, COMMANDER J.C. Shepard – so she _was_ still on the _Normandy_. Next to Shepard's name she saw a small emblem that was missing from the others – a silver circle on a blue background, with the ancient crest of the Council Ninth Infiltration Legion mounted on a halo of gold. Liara half widened her eyes in surprise – Shepard was a Spectre! When she had left Thessia for her expedition to Therum, high-ranking Matriarchs had predicted that it would be years – decades, even – before a human was named a Spectre, and now in the space of a few short months this commander had achieved the honour. It explained why his biotic skill had been so surprising to her on Therum – he was no ordinary human commando.

What struck Liara about the _Normandy _was the noise of the engines – there was none. She was used to being in the cramped confines of Kowloon, Armali or Parthia-class Freighters, where the roar of the engines and life support systems made it nearly impossible to sleep, let alone concentrate on research. The _Normandy_ glided through the stars on silent wings, her presence in the great void seemingly undetected. It was strange to be able to hear the sound of your own footsteps on a spacegoing vessel.

She walked into a narrow corridor at the front of the crew deck, pausing to look with curiosity at the twelve Sleeper Pods mounted in the passage. An ingenious design, the Sleeper Pod allowed for a crewman to sleep in a vertical environment, thereby conserving precious space on smaller vessels. Each pod was equipped with a stasis antigravity field, full environmental controls to adjust heat, wind, and humidity, immersive speakers, and a small personal storage compartment. Three soldiers shared a Sleeper Pod, each being assigned an eight-hour rest shift. When one crewman's rotation on duty was completed, they would wake the sleeping crew member and take their place in the pod – "hot bunking", the Alliance called it. Intrigued by the design, she slowly ran her hand over the smooth glass casing of one of the few empty pods.

"You're up on your feet. That's good to see," the voice caused Liara to freeze, her heart nearly stopping in her chest; she hadn't heard footsteps, or a door, or anything. Turning, she saw Commander Shepard leaning against the wall opposite the Medical Bay. He was dressed in his shipboard Alliance uniform, and Liara certainly thought it made him look the part of a Spectre. Standing well over six feet tall, his body was powerfully built, yet wiry. The short, almost buzzed hair and the chiselled jaw gave him a look of calm and cool professionalism, a confidence built as he had forged his body into a weapon of destructive power. His eyes positively glowed with intensity, and even as he stood there Liara could see him rapidly observing and analyzing every minute facet of the room – the position of chairs, the layout of the floor, her stance, her signs of exhaustion. Yet beneath the exterior, Liara almost thought she could see an incredible weight bearing down on him, as if some unseen force sapped that confidence and that calm. "How are you feeling?"

Liara moved away from the Sleeper Pod, her eyes staring shamefully at the floor. "I'm sorry, Commander. I got curious and started wandering and-" Shepard cut her off, indicating that he had no problem with it. Her guilt dissipating, she continued, "I am feeling much better, Commander. I never did properly thank you for saving me on Therum. If you hadn't showed up, I either would have starved or been taken by that-, Oh Goddess, I don't even want to think about it." She paused, knowing what she wanted to ask, but dreading the answer she knew she would hear. "You said that the Geth were sent by my mother to find me. Why in the Goddess's name would she do that? My mother and I haven't spoken in nearly half a decade."

Shepard motioned for her to move back into the Mess Hall. "There's a lot to fill you in on, so you may want to sit down." Liara did so gladly, drawing herself into one of the chairs at the Mess Table, as Shepard shifted to stand against the railing towards the front of the deck. "A week ago a Turian Spectre named Saren Arterius attacked a Human colony in the Traverse with a small army of Geth. When the Council designated him as having gone Rogue, evidence was uncovered that suggested that Matriarch Benezia was working with Saren. We don't know much more than that – only that it somehow involves the Protheans, which you're a specialist on." He paused, moving to bring his hands to rest on the table, "do you know anything about something called 'The Conduit'?"

Liara wracked her memory, searching for anything that might be of help to Shepard. After a lengthy silence, she sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Shepard, but I'm afraid I know very little. I've come across the term a few times, but never with enough other details to understand it. The only thing I know is that it's somehow linked to the Protheans' disappearance." She blushed slightly, as she felt her passion for the subject slowly working its way into her voice, "That is my real area of expertise. I've spent nearly five decades trying to uncover the secrets behind their civilization, and their disappearance."

"What have you managed to find?"

She sighed again, "Not much, I'm afraid. Most of what remains of the Prothean Empire dates from well before their disappearance." Her eyes dimmed, as her angst and anger almost seemed to boil over within her, "My research isn't taken very seriously either. I'm a bit of an anomaly in the academic community on Thessia – I'm the daughter of a high-profile Matriarch, and I'm far younger than people think a researcher should be. Most Asari think that we should spend our Maiden years exploring and adventuring, not digging through ancient ruins."

Shepard sat down across from her, carefully and exactingly folding his hands together. "I think…I think I may have a theory as to what happened the Protheans."

Liara looked at him incredulously. "I don't mean any offense, Shepard, but I've heard virtually every theory out there. The problem isn't a lack of theories – there are dozens, maybe even hundreds. The problem is one of evidence – namely, there isn't any. Virtually nothing remains from their Empire, and most of what does has been stripped by looters, like on Therum." She looked at Shepard, and saw that he was staring back at her, his eyes as resolute and determined as they had been before. The silence was telling; there was more to it than he was letting on. Could it be? Hesitantly, she asked, hoping for and dreading the answer that was to come, "do you have evidence?"

Shepard nodded, and was silent for a long time, choosing his words carefully. "Two days before Saren attacked Eden Prime, archaeologists there unearthed an intact Prothean Beacon." Liara's eyes widened; she couldn't recall an instance of one ever being unearthed before this, "I was just as surprised as you are. The _Normandy _was en route to retrieve the Beacon and bring it to the Citadel when Saren and the Geth struck. When we found the Beacon, Saren had activated it. I got too close to it, and it activated. It left some sort of…message in my mind. Death, chaos, destruction on a scale I had never even imagined was possible," he shuddered slightly, even now horrified at the memory of what he had seen. "I think it was a vision of the Protheans being wiped out, by hyper-advanced machines that the Geth call 'Reapers'."

Liara was struck silent, amazed by what she heard. A beacon, an actual, working beacon! As far as she knew, no one had ever found an intact beacon before in the history of the Council, and she now stood in front of the only man in the galaxy who had ever interacted with one. Even more, she revelled in the joy of realizing that she had been right – their disappearance was not a natural one. She had suffered for insisting that the theory was true – scorned by the academic community, looked down upon by other Asari her age, even flatly spurned by her own mother. She had been forced to prove her theory without any support or help from those around her, forced to accept expeditions to archaeological backwaters like Therum as lesser minds reaped the glory of finds on Klendagon or Feros. She needed to know more, she had to have answers, "and this vision didn't tell you anything about the Conduit?"

Shepard shook his head, "the Beacon was badly damaged, and the images were…unclear as a result. There's nothing to suggest what it is they're looking for, or its connection to the Conduit and the Reapers."

"Shepard, do you realize what an incredible discovery this is? No one has found an intact beacon in millennia, much less interacted with it. Prothean Beacons were designed to imprint messages and ideas directly into the minds of their users, but finding a working one is extremely rare, practically unheard of." She paused, but Shepard beckoned her to keep going, "unfortunately, the damage may not be the only reason that you couldn't understand the images. Prothean Beacons were designed to imprint onto Prothean minds, so it's no wonder that the vision didn't make any sense. Still, that you were able to understand any of it at all is remarkable. You must be incredibly strong-willed to handle that much information; a lesser mind would have been overwhelmed and likely broken apart." She stopped herself, realizing that she was beginning to ramble. "I'm sorry, Shepard, my curiosity got the better of me."

Shepard leaned forward, coming close enough that Liara could hear his breathing. "That's alright, doctor. At this point, we know nothing. We are literally shooting into the void right now. Any information you can give me – about the beacons, about Benezia, about the Protheans, the Conduit – is useful to me." He smiled wryly, "though the way you talk about it, it does sound like you want to study me in a lab or something."

The colour drained from Liara's face, her breathing nearly stopping. "Oh Goddess, I never meant to insinuate that. I only thought that you would be an interesting specimen in a stu-, no, that's even worse."

He had carried the ruse too far, and he knew it; it was time to break the ice. "Relax, Liara, I was only joking."

"Oh…Goddess, how could I be so dense?" The colour returned to Liara's face, blushing intensely as she concentrated on anything but Shepard. "I'm not used to interacting with humans, or anybody, really. This is why I prefer the solitude of digsites."

Shepard stood up, quickly keying something into his omnitool, causing three blue streams of light to emit from its display. Seconds later, the same three lights shone out of Liara's own omnitool. "If it's not too much, Liara, I'd like to ask you to join us aboard the _Normandy_. I don't know exactly what Saren wanted with you, but I think that we'd benefit enormously from having you on board."

Liara was elated, albeit surprised. She had dreaded the moment when she had to ask what came next. She was certain that she would not be safe if she left the _Normandy_ – if Saren's agents had been able to track her down on a planet as remote as Therum, she would be easy prey back on Thessia. "Thank-you, Shepard. I cannot think of a safer place for me than on board this ship. Do you have space for me on here? It seems like a rather cramped Frigate."

"We have a fully outfitted science lab behind the Medical Bay. If it's alright with you, Dr. Chakwas would be more than happy for you to be in the lab." He turned, moving towards the stairwell to the upper decks of the CIC, "now if you'll excuse me, Liara, I have things to attend to. Oh, and welcome to the SSV _Normandy_.

**SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Thirty-six Hours later**

_ Pain, an agony unlike any he had ever felt before swept through his body, his nerves screaming as if they were on fire. His lungs gasped for air, and yet burned furiously, distilling their rage at their disturbance into his throat. He could barely feel his hands or feet, and wondered if had indeed lost them. Blood hazed over his vision, obscuring his view of the sky and turning the bright, young blue star into an orange eye of hate, vengefully staring down at the shredded remnants of New Solitude. Slowly, he became aware of his surroundings again. He was pinned under a massive metal beam, his torso feeling the strain of the added weight; he was almost certain that several ribs were cracked. He tried to lift it with his own strength, but his wounds, his exhaustion, and his mind-numbing pain inhibited him. Reaching into his subconscious, he tried to call up some flare of biotic power, anything that would get this damned beam off of him. He found nothing – no last reserve of strength, no final flare of awesome power. Resignation washed over him; he would die here, die on this blasted world that he had been sent to. _

_ He would join them here, the nine men and women he had served with these past eight months. They had all died, slaughtered around him in their vain dash to find shelter. Steele had been the first to fall, his body sheared in half by the sheer force of the first Maw. James and Adam Erickson had survived everything – the destruction of their homeworld of Mindoir, the Skyllian Blitz, the Ison Corridor Run – but had found their graves beneath the ruins of New Solitude. He had seen Matthews, Malkin, Singh, Jade, and Toombs disappear in a torrent of dust kicked up by another of the other-worldly horrors; no one could have survived that. Emily had been the most painful, the most bitter. Twelve hours before, they had been talking of their future, of the life they planned to build together, of the dreams they hoped to fulfill with each other, and now she was dead, her body mangled and broken by these…things. Unchecked, tears streamed down his face, conveying dozens of emotions – despair that all of his dreams had been taken from him in that one instant, rage at the unknown, unseen force that had decided that he would be the one to suffer this. Rage welled up inside of him, giving him that last reserve of strength; summoning every inch of biotic power he could muster, he threw the beam off. His legs screaming agony, he slowly lifted himself up, staring at the devastation in front of him. Nothing had survived –no building, no road, no person. Fires burned in the distance, lighting the dawn sky with hues of red and gold._

_ For the first time, and hopefully the last, in his life, he was completely and utterly alone._

_ "This is the Alliance Cruiser SSV Cape Town. Does anyone read? I repeat: Does anyone read?"_

_ The voice over his comm-link jolted him back into reality: help was on the way. Slowly, struggling, his throat burning as he tried to speak, he responded. "This is Lieutenant John Shepard, N7 Marines, of the Third Advanced Recon Regiment attached to the SSV Warsaw's battlegroup." He paused, the words catching in his throat as the enormity of them cascaded down on him, "I'm the only one left."_

Shepard sat bolt upright in his bed, his pulse racing and breathing rapid. His senses returned to him, as he saw the dim hum of his cabin computer. Nearly two weeks had passed since the last time the memories of Akuze had burned their way through his mind. The visions of the Prothean Beacon had seemed to set his mind at rest for a time, and he had known an unassisted peaceful sleep for the first time in months. It appeared that this blessing was not to last.

Walking over to his storage locker, he withdrew a single bottle of Bekenstein Malt Whiskey from within and poured himself a glass. The liquid burned his throat as he consumed the drink in seconds, not even bothering to savour the taste. He had turned to alcohol in the aftermath of his hearings before the Alliance, as a means of finally getting the images of that hellish day out of his mind. He had been fortunate – his self-control was strong enough that the habit rarely interfered with his combat duties, but the threshold to push the images from his mind had gradually grown higher. He had heard of this sort of thing happening to other marines, their mental resolve broken as they descended into a psychosis of alcohol and painkillers, slowly spiralling down into a vortex of self-destruction.

He reached down and grasped his Alliance dog tags, rubbing the reverse side with the back of his thumb. He could still feel he nine cuts he had made into the steel with his combat knife – one for each life he had lost that day. After eight brutal months of training and combat simulations, they had been brothers in arms, if not in blood. They had been a team, the finest soldiers in the Alliance – N5, N6 and N7 Marines all. But they had been no match for the Thresher Maws. Even the mightiest of the Krogan feared them – Wrex was one of the only living Battlemasters to have killed a Maw whilst on foot, and by his own account virtually every bodily function had been transferred to secondary or tertiary organs by the end of the ordeal; he had been in a bunkered-down hospital for months afterwards. They had all died in agony – crushed by the weight of their massive serpentine bodies, boiled alive by the brutal acid that they sprayed, or simply consumed in an inferno of serrated teeth and blades. Dozens of others had died that day – the cream of the Alliance crop, the best of the best. They had been veterans of dozens of skirmishes, top graduates from the N7 Academy, and all their power had been nothing before the cosmicist terror that had annihilated them.

Emily's death had been the hardest to handle. They had met shortly after his graduation from the Academy. She was a hybrid biotic and tech specialist from Elysium; she had been inspired by the heroic Alliance defense of the planet during the Blitz to enlist. Her skills had won her rapid ascension through the ranks, and she had completed her N5 designation when she and Shepard were both assigned to the 3rd Advanced Recon Regiment. They had developed a rapport almost instantly, and after months of time in the same environment, they had begun to fall in love. Three weeks before Akuze, they had confessed it to one another, consummating their love in a blissful night of passion during Shore Leave on Bekenstein. They had planned to build a life together, to grow old with one another. Nineteen days later she was dead, her body mangled beyond recognition in the twisted and lifeless ruins of New Solitude.

Even now, that shadow still hung over him. It had pushed him forward, as he swore to never face such failure again. But it had also dogged him, isolated him. In the past week, he had begun to break off that isolation, as he had slowly, cautiously, built a rapport with those who now served under him. He sympathized with Kaidan's struggles with his biotic abilities, his refusal to allow the unpredictability of the L2s to sideline him; he saw a bit of himself in Ashley's determination to overcome the memory of General Williams' loss of Shanxi, of the greatest failure to have ever confronted humanity; he felt Garrus's desire to make the galaxy a brighter place, his fury at that desire being thwarted by forces beyond his control; he admired Wrex for his incredible battle prowess, and – though he could never truly understand it – he sensed and sympathized with Wrex's fury at watching his once-proud race descend slowly into oblivion. He treasured the almost childlike sense of wonder that Tali brought to the crew, as she confronted the world beyond the Flotilla for the first time in her life.

It would be some time before the alcohol began to take its effect, and Shepard needed to move around. Exiting his cabin, he moved slowly and carefully towards the Cargo Elevator. Most of the crew was asleep, with all of the sleeper pods filled; more crew were bunked down on the floor, as the full complement of the _Normandy_ gained some well-earned rest after a series of harrowing days in the Artemis Tau Cluster. Even at FTL speeds, as they raced towards the Relay in the Sparta System, the ship ran virtually silent. Exiting the Cargo Elevator, Shepard looked around the cargo bay for signs of consciousness. Garrus slept where he had dropped, propped up against the Mako and exhausted after twelve solid hours of repairs; Wrex was absent from the level, probably on the CIC chatting with Joker or Kaidan – who were on duty for the evening; Tali was curled in the corner, snoring softly as she rested on her travel-mat. He walked past all of them, and back into the engineering plant of the ship.

The soft hum of the Tantalus drive core was calming, as he walked into a deserted engine room. One of Adams's assistants was on duty, but was likely in the bowels of the engineering compartments making adjustments to the circuitry of the engine. Shepard had often wandered through those same compartments on the _Cairo_, marvelling at their intricacies. As he leaned against the rails, calming himself as he watched the Tantalus core pulsate back and forth, he heard a crash come from below, then shouting. Ducking into the narrow passageway, he lowered himself into the engineering ducts. The confinement of the corridor disconcerted him, and he hoped to be out of it quickly. He focused in on his hearing, listening carefully for signs of movement…yes, someone was definitely down here. Turning right, he could see the back of one of Adams's assistants – Corporal Crosby, he guessed – advancing into a calibration chamber. Turning to see Shepard, the engineer saluted. Behind him, Shepard could make out the frame of a crouched and visibly terrified Liara T'Soni.

"Corporal Crosby, mind telling me what's going on down here?"

"Aye, Commander, I caught this one poking her head around the engineering plant. Probably spying on us for her friends with Saren."

The look on Shepard's face was not one that the corporal had been expecting. Rather than congratulate this young ensign on his initiative, the commander's tone was harsh, almost repudiating. "Corporal, what makes you think that she is a traitor?"

Crosby stuttered, where before his report to Shepard had been so perfectly pieced together in his mind, now fragmented by this sudden unanticipated change. "Well…Commander…she, well, she is th-, the daughter of the Matriarch who's working with Saren, and so I thought, I thought that…"

Shepard's biotics flared, as he stepped menacingly towards the young ensign. "Corporal Silas S. Crosby, let me make one thing perfectly clear to you: Every single individual on this ship is on our side. There are no traitors, no spies, no informants – not for the Council, not for the Alliance, and certainly not for Saren. Dr. T'Soni was nearly killed by troops sent by her own mother to abduct her; she is no more a traitor than you are. Do you understand me?"

"I, yes sir, I do. My apologies commander."

"Good. Now, go back up to the Engineering Bay – the Tantalus Core needs watching while we're at FTL speeds." Crosby hurried past Shepard, and within seconds could be heard frantically climbing the ladder back to the cargo bay.

Shepard turned to Liara, who was still huddling in the corner, as if terrified by what she had just seen. Shepard offered her his hand, which she took hesitantly. "Are you alright Liara?"

Shyly, slowly, she answered him, "Yes, Shepard. I'm so very sorry. I was curious about how this ship worked, and it led me to places that I obviously wasn't supposed to go. I'm sorry."

Shepard shook his head, "there's nothing to be sorry about. Just check with Adams first next time; he's usually fine with it – the engineers on the _Cairo_ certainly were when I wandered through the engineering ducts on occasion."

"The _Cairo? _What sort of ship was that?"

"It was a Cruiser –two and a half times the size of this ship – crew of about a hundred and fifty. I was a Staff Lieutenant in the Marine Detail. I was transferred to the _Normandy_ from there two weeks ago." Reaching the ladder to the engineering plant, Shepard ascended first, Liara close behind him. He grinned at her, "still, you never know. Adams is very protective of the secrecy of this machinery. I'm sure he'd kill me if I tried to learn too much about it – think I was trying to take his job, or something."

"But wouldn't that be insubordination," Liara asked, her eyes going wide with shock.

Though she had mentioned it to him the day before, Shepard could have easily guessed by her manner that she was not used to interaction with humans. He chuckled to himself, eliciting a stare from her again, "relax, that was another joke."

"Oh…Goddess, I'm really terrible at human interaction, aren't I?" Quickly, they retreated to the cargo elevator, careful not to wake any of the crew splayed about the cargo bay. As the elevator ascended to the crew deck, Liara looked towards the floor, a lump forming in her throat. "Shepard…when we return to Council Space…I think that I will leave the _Normandy_."

Shepard stared at her, unsure of whether he had heard her right. "Leave? Didn't you say that this ship was the safest place for you?"

She nodded, "but I can see that I am not wanted. Your crew looks at me – they know who I am, the daughter of a traitor. They do not trust me, and I'm afraid that I will only jeopardize your mission if I stay here."

A single tear formed in her eyes, as she began to weaken at the knees. Catching her as she fell, Shepard gripped her shoulders firmly. "Look at me, look at me!" He stared directly into her sapphire eyes, "you are not a traitor. I don't care that your mother is fighting against us, you are not her. You are an asset to this team – your knowledge of the Protheans is unrivalled by anyone else I know. Until you stab a knife into my back, you are not a traitor. Do you understand me?" Slowly, she nodded, sniffling slightly. He relinquished his grip on her shoulders, "I trust you, Liara. It is my wish that you stay with us on the _Normandy_."

She nodded, "okay, but I'm still worried that I'll be a drag on the mission. Aside from standard Biotics training, I have almost no experience in the sort of things that you're doing. I don't have Wrex's three centuries of mercenary work, or Garrus's Blackwatch training, or even Tali's technical expertise."

Shepard smiled, causing her to blush a light purple. "I know, but trust me – I think I know how to fix that. I'll brief everyone tomorrow."

Exiting the elevator, she walked slowly back to her chambers in the Medical Lab. Just before the door, she turned to Shepard. "If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing up at this time? I thought everyone on the ship was asleep."

Shepard's smile disappeared, his mood darkening almost instantly. He struggled to search for the words to answer her, ones that would satisfy her curiosity while remaining cryptic. "I was having difficulty sleeping – adrenaline from the last few days got to me."

"Oh, I-, I see. Goodnight, commander." She walked into the Medical Bay, the door closing shut behind her.

Walking back to his cabin, Shepard splayed himself out on the bed, feeling much better than he had before his little walk. He was puzzled by Liara – so ethereal and otherworldly, and yet so very human-like in her quirks, her curiosity, her shyness. She definitely looked Asari – one of the most beautiful that he had ever seen, and yet her manner was definitely not that of an Asari. She was right – most Asari Maidens spent their early years of independence on the move – either as mercenaries in the Terminus Systems, or training to be Commandos, not studying archaeology. Her fascination with his contact with the Beacon only added to her rapport – it was something that no one else on the _Normandy_ had been able to understand or comprehend. She wasn't lying though – she was out of place on a vessel stocked with commandos, battle-hardened mercenaries, Spectres, C-SEC veterans, and technical savants, but that wasn't going to last for long.

As he drifted off to sleep, no longer fearing the potential to relive Akuze, he knew exactly what they had to do.


	5. Chapter 4: Pinnacle

_**Chapter 4: Pinnacle**_

"_They know how to bury and shield their rage to protect those around them; I will teach them to confront it and unleash it. They know how to fight five men; I will teach them to defeat fifty. They know how to disappear; I will show them how to be invisible, to walk unseen on the battlefield as an engine of war. They are blessed with extraordinary gifts – be they speed, biotics, or intelligence – that make them an anomaly; I will forge them into a shield for civilization, and an artist of the battlefield that stirs fear in the hearts of those that would dare oppose us." – Instructor Corp. Oath, N7 Academy_

**CIC – SSV **_**Normandy, Argos Rho Cluster**_

Shepard stood at the Galaxy Map as the _Normandy_ made the Relay jump to the Argos Rho Cluster. Located in the heart of the Traverse, the region had several charted planets, but had been the sight of furious fighting during the Krogan Rebellions some 1200 years ago. Indeed, Wrex had regaled Shepard with dozens of tales of the vicious campaigns that went on in the cluster – the Krogan defense of Intai'Sei against the might of the Turian Fifth Fleet, the brilliant maneuvers of Caius Victus in battle in the Gorgon system that forced a Krogan withdrawal to the core worlds, the final doomed assault of Warlord Weyrloc Wreave against the combined forces of the Asari Republics and the Turian Hierarchy. Argos Rho had been a focal point of the Krogan Rebellions, and the scars still showed in the dozens of hulks of wreckage scattered throughout the systems, each having been picked over by scavengers and looters dozens of times in the past millennia.

Since then, the cluster had seen much less activity. The Systems Alliance maintained a small colony on Intai'Sei – a desert planet in the Phoenix System – but high temperatures combined with little mineral wealth made it a comparative backwater. Pirates, slavers, mercenaries, and other groups retreating to the Terminus following activities in Council Space often used Argos Rho as a kind of safehouse, waiting until patrol fleets from the Hierarchy or the Salarian Union gave up the search.

The _Normandy_ dropped out of the Relay and into the Hydra system, as Joker carefully eased the frigate back into cruising speeds. Quickly passing the planet of Camrum, Joker activated the _Normandy_'s FTL drive and set her on a course for the Phoenix System. Remaining at the Galaxy Map, Shepard paged the ground crew of the ship to meet him in the CIC. Descending from the Galaxy Map, he turned to Pressly, who was quietly recalibrating navigational trajectories for the Phoenix system. "Pressly, you'll be in charge while we're disembarked at Pinnacle. We'll need to finish the repairs to the stabilization thrusters that were damaged on Therum, the Mako's shock absorbers need fixing after the rough takeoff from Trebin, and Joker and Adams both want to run several more diagnostics tests on the stealth drive around Intai'Sei. So long as you remain in the Phoenix system and don't deploy groundside, you and Joker are in charge of the _Normandy_."

"Yes sir. I'll keep her safe while you're away. Good luck out there, Shepard." Pressly saluted gruffly as he stalked towards the bridge, no doubt to converse with Joker about their plans for the next few days of maneuvers.

Garrus was the first one onto the CIC, followed closely by Kaidan and Wrex, who were chatting animatedly about the application of biotic fields in vehicle combat. The two had developed something of a rapport – Kaidan was in awe of Wrex's wealth of battlefield experience, and was eager to develop his own biotic talents under the tutelage of one of the last Krogan Battlemasters. Ashley – clearly just woken from sleep – emerged from the door on the right side of the galaxy map, yawning as she pulled her N4 sweater over her Alliance uniform. Tali remained in the engineering bay – Adams had asked that she stay on board to help with stealth drive tests, and she had acquiesced eagerly. Liara was the last to enter the CIC, as she nervously adjusted her new set of Guardian II Armour. When none of the surplus sets on the _Normandy_ had fit her slender frame, Shepard had ordered a new set through the Requisitions Officer. She absent-mindedly toyed with her holstered Predator IV pistol, as Shepard surveyed the five of them. After a long period of silence, it was Kaidan who finally spoke, "commander, can I ask what we're doing in the Phoenix system? Best as we can tell, nothing unusual comes up on the scanners, and Intai'Sei hasn't reported any distress calls in well over two years."

Shepard nodded, glancing at Wrex, "You're right, this has been a fairly stable system for close to a thousand years, but there are still quite a few relics from the Krogan Rebellions in the system." His eyes went to Vakarian, "Garrus, have you ever heard of Pinnacle Station?"

Garrus's eyes widened, a smile crossing his face as he comprehended what Shepard's plan was. "Oh yes, I have heard of Pinnacle". Shepard smiled to himself, as the Galaxy Map disappeared to be replaced by holographic schematics of one of the largest asteroids in the system's belt. Situated in the heart of one of its massive craters was Pinnacle Station. Constructed as a forward operating base by the Hierarchy during the Krogan Rebellions, they had worked jointly with the Systems Alliance to retrofit the facility to serve as a commando training facility, reopening it for operations in 2175. Command rotated between Turian and Human officers, with Alliance Admiral Tadius Ahern – a black-ops veteran of the First Contact War – in the third year of his tenure in command of the facility. He had earned a reputation as a tough-to-please, no-nonsense shock assault specialist, one who relentlessly pushed those who trained under him to the edge of their abilities.

"It was the first Turian-Human collaboration project before the _Normandy_ – running a high-profile join special forces training regimen," Shepard explained, "At this point, we don't have any further leads on Saren, so I've decided that we're going to spend that time in training. We'll need to be flawless as individuals and a group if we want to have a hope of successfully taking on Saren. We dock in five minutes. Everyone grab your gear and be by the airlock and ready to go ashore." The team immediately went their separate ways, most heading back to the lower levels to grab weapons and equipment from the Armoury. Shepard motioned to Liara, who came to stand near him. The armour fit her quite well, but it left very little to the imagination in terms of her figure – Shepard caught himself staring slightly, and quickly averted his gaze. "Liara, I know you said that you didn't think you had the fighting skills necessary to be a part of the team. We're going to fix that here; you'll work with Garrus, Wrex and I in combat simulations. We'll make a commando out of you yet."

"I appreciate your faith in me, Shepard. I'm eager to learn from you and the others," she glanced behind Shepard, watching as Garrus finished fine-tuning his Sniper Rifle, "and I hope I'll live up to your expectations." The two of them joined Garrus and Wrex at the airlock, as the _Normandy_ VI synchronized the pressure between the frigate and the station. Within seconds, the door opened. They were greeted by a long and narrow corridor, the bulletproof glass on the walls looking out onto a barren landscape of rock and ice. Half a dozen guards stood at attention near the far door, all of them Turian and heavily armed and armoured. As the four of them walked towards the entrance to the main deck, he could hear the whispers of the guards around him.

"Hey, is that Commander Shepard, the first Human Spectre?"

"It must be; he's registered as the commander of the _Normandy_, which just docked with the station."

"He's coming to train here? Ahern's tough to impress, but apparently Shepard's phenomenally good."

"Doesn't matter, he's still human. It'll be fun to watch him join the queue to get his ass pummelled in the simulators."

Shepard rolled his eyes – despite the closer cooperation between the Hierarchy and the Alliance, some things never changed.

**Pinnacle Station – four hours later**

Liara watched as Shepard, Garrus and Wrex emerged from the simulator, thoroughly bruised and short of breath. The three had just attempted a "Survival" run on the simulator, holding out for as long as possible before the three were gunned down by the holographic mercenaries bearing down on them. They had lasted close to ten minutes – far exceeding the time of Vidinos Aurius; the captain of the stations Guard Detail, he was a veteran of the Turian Blackwatch and was considered a likely successor to Ahern as commander of the training regime in 2185. After Vidinos accused another Human soldier – Lieutenant Bryant of the Fifth Recon Regiment – of tampering with equipment in order to beat the captain's scores, Shepard had challenged him to a bet: If Shepard could best Vidinos in all possible simulation scenarios, he would withdraw his charges against Bryant, and throw in his personal shotgun for good measure; the three of them had now completed two of the eight simulations on the Station.

Shepard gestured to Liara as Garrus went to service several cuts along his face, "Liara, you're coming with Vakarian and I for the next simulation. I want to see how you perform in combat." The order took her by surprise – she had presumed that the actual challenge simulations would be done by the more experienced members of the team, not by her.

"But, Shepard, are you sure you want me to do this? I'm not the most experienced-"

Shepard cut her off, "I need to actually fight alongside you to assess your abilities, and we can repeat each simulation a virtually unlimited number of times. Wrex is going to observe and see what advice he can give. Grab your gear and get ready."

Ten minutes later, Liara met Shepard and Garrus by the gate to the simulation area. As it opened, it revealed an extremely well put-together layout of a tropical planet – with a climate and biology similar to Sur'Kesh around the equatorial regions. Through the background, Liara could barely make out a dozen well-camouflaged projectors, beaming thin holograms of the environment around them, as well as prospective targets. Hesitantly, she reached down and drew her pistol from its holster, as Garrus unsheathed his sniper and began scanning the room, looking for locations where he would have an ideal view of the battlefield.

Ahern's voice came over the intercoms in the ceiling of the fifty-foot-high room, blaring the instructions to them. "This Scenario centres around securing and holding objectives. We have surveillance monitors that were established in this area to keep track of pirate activity in the system. they've been located and compromised by a mercenary group calling itself the Fists of Omega; your job is to locate them and secure them for recovery. Complete the objective as fast as you can. Forty seconds until mercenary deployment."

"Garrus, find a good sniper position and cover our approach to the first and second objective points. Once we've secured those, take point for the approach to the third and we'll meet you there," Garrus merely nodded and sprinted off further into the room, disappearing from view as slipped behind the tropical foliage to find a sniping point. "Liara and I will secure the first objective and hold it for as long as we need to. Once that's done, I'll deploy to the second; once I've secured that, Garrus can cover your approach to it. We'll then provide biotic and fire support for Garrus as he holds the third, and then jointly converge on the fourth objective from two sides." Turning off his comm-link, he turned to Liara, "you'll need to hold the first objective as I take the second – the approach is too narrow for both of us to go at once without it becoming a killing ground. You'll need to time your barriers precisely or you'll get boxed in and overwhelmed. Try to activate them as you spot enemies and you should be fine. Use Lift and Singularity to clear out large numbers of enemies – it also gives Garrus a clear shot at as many of them as he can manage. Think you can manage that?" Liara nodded, "good. Let's get that first objective."

They sprinted out from cover towards a ramp towards a raised platform – approximately ten feet off the ground, it cut through the foliage and the narrow canyons between sheer cliffs. As they reached the base of the ramp, they were greeted by a dozen holographic projections of Turian, Krogan and Human mercenaries. Shepard deftly knocked three of them out with his shotgun, before turning and shredding another two with a biotic warp. Behind him, Liara deployed a singularity field at a group of a half dozen mercenaries, sending them spinning wildly through the air around the point of deployment; she watched in morbid fascination as sniper shots erupted through four of them, as Garrus struck back from his unseen perch. They quickly reached the first objective, marked by a small orange ring on the floor-tiles of the platform. Data immediately began transferring to their omnitools, as a light VI voice periodically informed them of the time remaining until the objective was held. Liara dove into cover to avoid the assault rifle fire of a Turian mercenary, as Shepard switched to his pistol and deployed his barriers. With deft movements of the wrist, he quickly gunned down another six projections, as Liara finished off the last two rotating opponents in the remnants of her Singularity.

The VI voice chimed in, _"Objective captured: please proceed to next intelligence package."_ Shepard gave Liara a quick look of understanding, before diving out of cover and sprinting towards the second objective point fifty meters further along the platform, as Garrus took out anything that lay in his path. Liara watched, almost hypnotized by the intensity of it, as Shepard threw biotic attacks – ranging from throws to the pure added energy of a biotic fist to the face – as he booked it to the second objective. Rolling forward, he swung his shotgun and took out the legs from under another projection, before shredding the last mercenary near him with a point-blank shot to the skull. Liara tore her eyes away from him, in time to duck back behind cover as a half dozen mercenaries advanced towards her. Frantically, she deployed her barriers as tracers whizzed over her head. Concentrating, she blindly fired over the railing with her pistol, deploying another Singularity near the entrance to the walled-in area to choke off close-range intruders. She peered over the railing, and watched as Garrus quickly took out two of the projections near her.

Over her comm-link, she heard Shepard's voice, "the second objective is secured. Liara, rendezvous at the intelligence node; Garrus, provide sniper cover from your position." Liara reacted instinctively, rolling from cover and into the open, exposing herself to the dozen projections bearing down on her. She quickly knocked several out of the way with a series of biotic attacks, while Garrus sniped the ones behind her – still unseen, neither Shepard nor Liara had any idea where exactly he was, only that it was a damned effective sniping position. Ducking left to avoid a holographic Krogan, Liara deployed her barriers behind her just in time, wincing as several slug shots bounced harmlessly off of the projected force field. She quickly reached Shepard, who was hurriedly fighting off two Turian mercenary projections in close quarters, the three trading blows with biotically-fuelled punches and rifle-butts. Liara took out one of them with her pistol, before throwing the other into the wall with the impact force of Mako. The two of them huddled behind cover as the intelligence slowly downloaded to their omnitools, as Garrus continued to wreak havoc from his sniper perch, felling mercenaries by the score with carefully-timed shots.

The VI indicated that the intelligence package had been secured, as Garrus quickly paged both of them over the comm-link. "I'm on my way to the third objective. There's a lot of mercenaries between us though – try flanking from the south to draw their fire." Shepard motioned to Liara to move forward as the two of them jumped to the ground, continuing on foot towards the third objective. Sneaking behind a rock outcropping at the edge of the simulation room, they quickly found themselves behind a group of ten mercenaries, who were throwing a barrage of fire at the third objective, where Garrus was cautiously crouched behind a wall of cover. He was heavily pinned down and taking fire, but seemed uninjured. Liara initiated the ambush, throwing a Singularity in the midst of the projections, who quickly tumbled off their feet and found themselves trapped in the gravitational field. They made a perfect target for Garrus and Shepard, who was already bolting towards the objective, raining down destruction as he did so. He vaulted over cover to rendezvous with Garrus, completing the capture of the third objective point. With two minutes of time left, the three of them ran for the last objective, stopping to fight only if enemies got directly in their way. Garrus was the first to reach the last objective, as he switched to his assault rifle to better engage the projections now rapidly closing on them.

As Liara ran for cover, she felt a sharp pain in her left knee, one that quickly began to spread to the rest of her lower body. Too late, she realized that she had forgotten to deploy her barriers as they ran past the hordes of projections around them. Glancing down, she noticed blood streaming from a wound in the back of her leg, as a Batarian projection approached her menacingly. She stumbled and fell, agony coursing through her as she fought to crawl towards cover. Shepard and Garrus had made it to cover, and would be able to complete the objective with more than enough time to win the simulation. She turned onto her back, continuing to shuffle backwards as two Batarian projections bore down on her – one wielding a shotgun, the other a precision pistol. They were drawing closer, ready to finish her off…and then they were gone, disappeared in a flash of light and pyrotechnics. A shadow covered her, and Liara turned to see Shepard, shotgun in hand, firing a volley of slug shots at the approaching projections. He reached down and grasped her by the wrist, pulling her back upright and pushing her behind him. "Get to cover, I'll hold these bastards off!" Liara limped steadily towards the clearing, as Shepard slowly backpedalled, firing precision shots as he did so. All around him, projections disintegrated as he worked his lethal craft, relying on a potent mix of biotic barriers, lifts, and pure adrenaline to hold the attackers at bay. Garrus held the line, slowly collecting the necessary intelligence from the data-point.

Liara was nearly back to the ring of cover when her knee gave out, sending her sprawling across the ground. She turned to find a Krogan projection approaching her, gun outstretched and ready to fire. She braced herself for the impact, and felt her limbs go numb as the stasis bubble surrounded her. This was it – the Krogan had her cornered, she was finished. Her resignation turned to shock when the shots bounced harmlessly off of the stasis field – it hadn't been deployed by the Krogan! She turned and saw Shepard, his arm outstretched and glowing with the aura of biotic power, as he held the field together. Garrus fired a single burst from his rifle and eliminated the Krogan, at which point Shepard released the field. Liara dropped to her knees, and was about to thank Shepard as his face contorted in pain. His turn to save Liara had left him exposed, and he roared in pain as several rounds caught him square in the stomach. He turned and blew the head off of the Batarian who had struck him, before limping towards cover. Twenty seconds later, the simulation was over, as Garrus's patience in the objective zone paid off for them. Ahern's voice rang over the speaker system, "three minutes and fourteen seconds – three seconds ahead of Vidinos's record for Tropical Capture. Well done, Shepard, though I must say that you ability to weigh the pros and cons of standing in the way of oncoming gunfire could use some improvement."

Liara turned to Shepard, who was doubled over in pain, grimacing as he probed his stomach for the point where the rounds had glanced off. Though Ahern didn't use live-fire rounds, the blanks were still extremely painful if they hit, and he appeared to have taken a full shotgun burst straight in the stomach. His breathing was heavy, and Liara could see blood on his armour plates. Cautiously, she moved closer to him, crouching down beside him to see the damage, "I'm so sorry Shepard. It was my fault – I forgot to deploy my Barriers like you asked me to. I-, I'm so sorry." He fumbled with his omnitool to activate the Medigel dispenser, a sense of relief washing over him when he finally activated it.

He turned to Liara, who still looked extraordinarily concerned. "It's alright, I'll live. Besides," he shrugged, "it's better that we work those bugs out during simulation and not actual combat." Slowly, taking care with every movement so as not to enflame the throbbing pain in his stomach, he walked towards the exit of the simulation room, opening the doors to cheers and shouts from the _Normandy_ ground crew. The other commandos on the station had taken to watching Shepard's bouts with the simulator, and they tended to walk away impressed. Garrus was downright mobbed by recruits and guards, awed by his profligacy with a sniper rifle, and was forced to trudge along as he was boxed into a corner by the crowd. Shepard walked straight through the crowd, not even pausing to shake off the backslaps he received from Kaidan or Ashley. Liara followed him, concerned that his wound might have been more substantial than she thought.

Ducking into a small alcove, she spotted Shepard near one of the tables in the Mess Hall, methodically unbuckling the armour on his upper body and laying it out in front of him. He examined the dents in the torso-plate, as well as several tears in the fabric of his battle-dress uniform. Sighing, he pulled the shirt off to examine the damage to his stomach itself.

Liara's jaw nearly dropped as she looked at Shepard. His upper body was nothing but pure, sculpted muscle, framed powerfully by his broad shoulders. His skin was slightly tanned, the result of weeks of physical training on the harsh environments of the deserts of Earth or Nomanesan. But what stood out were the scars; Shepard's shoulders and abdomen were covered in them. The oldest – and most faded – ran diagonally down his chest, nearly a foot in length. Many had faded with time to a slight pinkish colour, only to be replaced by newer scars and etches.

Liara's foot accidently made contact with one of the bulkheads, causing Shepard to jerk his head towards her. He tensed slightly, then relaxed as he saw who it was, "Good Lord, don't sneak up on me like that!" he turned back to his work, probing his abdomen cut to examine the extent of the damage.

Flustered and embarrassed, she struggled to respond, blushing a deep purple, "I'm sorry, Shepard. I-," she paused, willing herself to avert her eyes from his chest. "I'm not sure what came over me, I-", she paused again, looking concerned as Shepard clutched at the wound on his abdomen, "how bad is it?"

"I'll live," Shepard replied, glancing down a final time at the cut. The bleeding seemed to have lessened. He quickly applied a second patch of Medigel, closing the wound permanently. "Besides," he added, "it's not like this is the first time I've had to take a bullet for a squadmate, and this certainly isn't the worst one."

Liara gestured with her head towards the rows of pinkish scars on his shoulders. "Is that how you got all of the-?"

Shepard nodded. "The oldest ones are from N7 training – that was nearly seven years ago. The really nasty one," he pointed to a particularly lengthy scar on his left shoulder, "that was from Andur IV – five years ago, we hit a Batarian slaver compound in the Traverse. Batarians use these ballistic claw contraptions to knock out targets at close range, and I took a full set to the shoulder. I was on the operating table for nearly three days – if I hadn't had a biotic barrier, I probably would have died." He replaced his battle dress uniform, pulling the fabric back over his scarred and muscular frame. "The rest are from Terminus patrol duty, none nearly as serious as that one." As he reattached his armour, he turned and spoke to her. "You did well in there Liara; I was really impressed with your biotic abilities."

"Thank-you, Shepard. I screwed up in there, and I'm truly sorry for it."

"You don't need to apologize; if I'm not willing to take a bullet for a squadmate, then I'm not doing my job. How do you think I got all the scars in the first place?" He put his hand on her shoulder, her nerves tingling oddly as his powerful grip clutched at her. "You'll get better. You didn't fight like an amateur in there, and I promise that you will be as good as anyone else on the _Normandy_ by the time we're done, even if it kills me."

Liara was taken aback by his morbid humour, "but Shepard, wouldn't that jeopardize any possibility of-,"

Shepard cut her off, "relax; I was joking again." He released her, and began walking back towards the main room. "Be ready in twenty minutes – we're going back in for another round!"

**Pinnacle Station Observation Area – Two days later**

Liara made her way towards the observation deck of Pinnacle Station, where virtually the whole crew of both the _Normandy_ and Pinnacle had gathered. The past forty eight hours had seen a flurry of activity, as Shepard and his squad rapidly climbed the rankings of Pinnacle's scoreboards. Yesterday, they had beaten the last of Vidinos's eight scores, allowing Shepard to win the bet handily. The Turian captain had been less than gracious in defeat, but had nevertheless honoured the bargain, giving Shepard his Scimitar VI Shotgun as payment for the bet. The Scimitar was a thing of beauty, its unique twin mass effect generators gave it a much higher rate of fire, and combined with an additional modded heat-sink and Kinetic Coil, it was an extremely powerful weapon. Ahern and Ochren – the overseer of the combat simulation programming – had offered Shepard's crew half a dozen additional simulations to attempt, pitting them against ever more difficult enemies.

Shepard had pushed Liara hard – forcing her to take on ever more responsibility during simulations, and schooling her in the theoretical aspects of battle (especially with biotics) outside of combat. The scope and depth of his instructional knowledge was staggering, and it showed in the considerable improvement in her skills. She now regularly deployed alongside Shepard and either Garrus or Wrex, and her actions had resulted in them failing only once – she had misfired her Stasis field and was promptly taken down by another projection, exposing Shepard and Wrex's flank and causing them to be cut to pieces as well. Both of them had been honest and firm, but gentle, with her afterwards. It had not been a mistake she had made again, and her precision and focus had improved dramatically.

Virtually all of it could be attributed to Shepard. He was the perfect teacher – harsh when he had to be, but able to tell when he had pushed too far or too hard. It was as if he understood her mindset, her strengths and weaknesses, her desire to do what those around her aspired for her and yet her hesitation to step into a role that she had never imagined herself in. Shepard was a natural leader, someone who made those around them better at everything they did. Learning from him, fighting alongside him, Liara didn't have a hard time determining why he had been inducted into the ranks of the Spectres. That he had saved her life multiple times only added to her admiration.

But perhaps there was more to it than that. His connection to the Protheans intrigued and excited her; he had seen things that she had only ever dreamed of seeing, grasped the fragments of minds that she would have given anything to understand. She was drawn to him, as indeed everyone who served and fought alongside him seemed to be. It was his drive, his dedication, his devotion to higher ideals, his relentless pursuit of perfection – these were what drew the best and brightest to his cause. Yet she could also sense something deeper than that, something beneath the surface that was both unique and frightening. She could see it in him every time she looked at him, in the dim and haunted look in his eyes when he wasn't in combat, in the way he always seemed to steer every conversation away from himself. She didn't understand it, but – and it frightened her – she hungered to find out why.

A crowd had gathered at the observation deck above the largest of the simulation stadia, a previously-unfinished "special ops" room that was reserved for the testing of potential combat scenarios. Kaidan, Tali and Ashley were all crowded against the glass, while a crowd of guards cheered wildly – she caught several of them chanting Shepard's name, while others had opened up cases of drinks to split between them. Muscling her way through the crowd, she got to Kaidan and Ashley. The female Alliance Marine had proven somewhat hostile to her at first, disapproving of the presence of a non-human – and a female, at that! – On-board an Alliance vessel. Kaidan had proven more welcoming, and substantially kinder. Tali had been the kindest of them; her status as a fellow non-combat outsider had created somewhat of a bond between them, as had their lack of familiarity with the world of the Alliance. She turned to Tali, "what's going on?"

Kaidan cut in, "Shepard just made a bet with Admiral Ahern – he's going to run a simulation that recreates one of Ahern's ops from the First Contact War – survive until extraction. If he can do it, Ahern's offered him his apartment on Intai'Sei."

It was quite the bet – prefab complexes on new colonies were never cheap; there must be something substantial riding on the other side. "And if he loses," she asked, dreading what the answer was going to be.

It was Ashley who answered her, "There's the catch – the commander's not doing a standard simulation – Ahern turned off the Safeties. All of them."

Liara gulped, her stomach filling with dread. It seemed ridiculous, suicidal even, for Shepard to bet his life in a simulation. There was nothing to gain from it – no strategic foothold, no tactical advantage, and no new intelligence in their hunt for Saren or her mother. She couldn't begin to fathom why he would do such a thing, especially since it meant risking the lives of Garrus and Wrex as well.

The crowd on the platform gasped as they watch the course materialize before them. Even with her limited tactical knowledge, Liara could see that it was practically a worst-case scenario: Almost no cover to speak of, no chokepoints, and no potential for covert flanking maneuvers. The middle was dominated by the wreckage of a single hover-speeder, its cockpit crushed inward upon itself; this provided no respite from the fighting, as Liara could see projections forming on all sides of the hulk – no matter what side they were on, they would be exposed. Two defensive turrets flanked the perimeter of the battlefield – potential assistance against the overwhelming number of mercenaries, but activating them would leave a soldier lethally exposed to gunfire for close to ten seconds – it was suicide. The sheer number of projected enemies was staggering as well – it had to be nearly double the number of any of the scenarios they had attempted thus far. Ahern's voice boomed over the intercom, "Listen up! This is a little scenario I've been designing for quite some time – it's based off of an op I participated in during the First Contact War. You have to grab the Intel in the downed transport, and then survive until extraction – six full minutes later. The combatants are Human Spectre John Shepard, C-SEC veteran Garrus Vakarian, and Krogan mercenary Urdnot Wrex. In an attempt to make the scenario a little bit more…interesting…than originally planned, we have turned off all of the safeties. The bet: Survival, the stakes: his life. Good luck, gentleman."

Shepard, Garrus and Wrex emerged from the entrance, weapons drawn and powers primed. Garrus turned his attention to the snipers rappelling down the far wall, while Wrex and Shepard charged towards the intel. With Wrex providing cover, Shepard quickly retrieved the data, as Garrus moved to try and activate the defensive turrets around the perimeter. Once he had succeeded, he quickly backpedalled to join Shepard and Wrex along a narrow U-shaped causeway on the left side of the room.

The next six minutes were filled with an alternating mood of euphoria, fear, triumph, and excitement, as the three commandos beat back wave after wave of attacks against their position. A lone box casing provided cover on the causeway, which Garrus used to devastating effectiveness for his sniper. With a combination of barriers and agility, Shepard was able to draw the fire of many of the projections, rolling in and out of cover to keep them guessing as to his location and intentions. Wrex drew the rest, relying on his sheer endurance capacity to prevent being overwhelmed. The causeway worked extremely well in funneling enemies towards them through a few narrow approaches, and allowed them to whittle down the survival time by half. Finally, after three long minutes, the sheer weight of numbers caused the position to fail them. Liara nervously watched as Wrex and Shepard cleared a path with a potent mix of shotgun shells and biotics, as they scattered projections to the four winds and bolted out of the causeway, Garrus acting as a rearguard. They cycled the battlefield, trying to avoid being pinned down in any one place, as they tried to run down the timer as much as they could. With a minute left, Garrus succumbed to gunfire, nearly losing consciousness as he was overwhelmed in a hail of rifle-fire.

Liara gasped as Shepard and Wrex jointly deployed a biotic shield around the three of them, as Garrus struggled to get to his feet. Even from her perch in the observation gallery, she could see the strain on Shepard's face as he concentrated every fibre of his mind on holding the field together. Wrex quickly injected Garrus with a shot of medigel, and the Turian was back on his feet, firing with needle-like precision at the ever-growing group of projections outside of the field. Shepard was on his knees now, every muscle in his body quivering in agony and exhaustion as he fought to keep the field held aloft. Slowly, taking what seemed like an eternity, he brought his arms together across his chest, clenching his fists as he prepared to throw the force of the shield outward. Roaring a final battle-cry of defiance, he threw his arms outward.

The shield exploded, the force of the blast throwing everything in the simulation chamber off of its feet; projections were hurled against the wall, shattering into a thousand flurries of light as they slipped from the plane of existence. Even on the observation deck, many lost their balance, so great was the force of the biotic explosion. Liara found herself shaken against Tali, who steadied her with a firm grasp on her shoulder. She stared through the chaos, and saw Shepard, Garrus and Wrex scramble towards the far wall, downing the last few projections as the timer ticked down towards zero.

Just like that, it was over; the projections vanished, the room returned to its previous gridlike state. The reaction by the observers above was one of stunned silence, as they tried to take in what they had just seen. No one had ever come close to holding the records on every single simulation, let alone to even being offered the chance to run Ahern's doomsday simulation. The three of them stood in the middle of the room – thoroughly battered, bruised, and exhausted – as the crowd above them slowly began to cheer. When they exited the simulation chamber, pandemonium reigned, and Shepard found himself mobbed by awestruck soldiers as he tried to work his way back to his crew. Garrus limped through the crowd, quickly moving for the Medigel station but finding his way blocked by a crowd of onlookers. Even Wrex – noted for his solitude and aloofness – was surrounded by fellow soldiers, as those around them tried to comprehend the sheer scale of what they had just witnessed. Slowly, Shepard maneuvered towards his squadmates, greeting Kaidan with a strong handshake. Alenko – his nerved calm never leaving him – returned the gesture, "well done, commander. That was very impressive."

Ashley was the next to him, moving to stand very close to Shepard, "the LT is right – that was impressive. They'll be talking about that one for a long time, skipper." Liara didn't know why, but the tone in Ashley's voice suddenly filled her with a sense of dread. Was there something between them that she didn't know about? She didn't even know why the potential for it gave her that feeling, but the thought of it frightened her.

Shepard briefly chatted with Tali, before the three of them headed back to the _Normandy_ to join Garrus and Wrex. Shepard turned to Liara, who stood gazing out onto the simulation room. She turned, immediately caught in the intense stare of his ice-blue eyes. "Shepard…that was unbelievable. I've never seen anything so impressive in my life." They turned and began walking back towards the docking bay, where Joker and Pressly were waiting for them, "but there's something I don't understand: You didn't have to do that. You didn't have to turn off all of the safeties, or agree to bet your life for no gain. Why did you bet such high stakes?"

His eyes seemed to intensify, boring into her mind as he spoke to her. "Because Ahern didn't think that I could. I had to prove him wrong."

Liara nearly laughed at the absurdity of it, but the seriousness in his voice told her that this wasn't in jest. But that didn't make any sense; why would a Spectre need to prove himself to anybody? "Is it common for Humans to doubt the abilities of a Spectre?"

When she looked back at him, the intensity in his eyes was gone, replaced by a dull greyness that coated his vision. His voice seemed to trail off, as if he was distracted, "They've doubted me for a long time, ever since…I'm sorry Liara, but I hope you understand that I don't like talking about it." A single glance, and the dullness in his eyes was gone, his voice just as confident and powerful as it had been before. "We got what we came here for. You're now trained as a commando, and we're all much stronger as a team as a result." He rested a hand on Liara's shoulder, sending jolts of energy through her and causing her to blush, "I'm proud of you, Liara."

Shepard walked back towards the airlock to the _Normandy_, leaving Liara to ponder what he'd said. There was no doubt about it; he was a compelling individual. Even if she didn't understand its cause, she admired his dedication to perfection. It was what made Garrus – a veteran soldier and former potential Spectre Candidate – willing to follow him to hell and back; it earned the loyalty of Urdnot Wrex – who distrusted everyone who wasn't Krogan, and most who were – and the idolization of Tali, Kaidan, Ashley…and her. His actions spoke of someone who genuinely cared about the wellbeing of those he fought alongside, who was willing to throw themselves into harm's way for their sake – when he had thrown himself in front of Liara to block an oncoming sniper round, her heart had nearly burst out of her chest, so powerful was the adrenaline rush from the fear and awe. Yet that look in Shepard's eyes when he had begun to talk about his past – there was something behind it all, something that drove him, and yet she had no idea what it was.

But she intended to find out.


	6. Chapter 5: Traversing the Ghosts

_**Chapter 5: Traversing the Ghosts**_

"_If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?" –William Shakespeare_

**SSV **_**Normandy**_**, Newton System, Kepler Verge Cluster**

Liara ascended the stairs to the CIC as the _Normandy_ exited the Mass Relay into the Kepler Verge, a two-system cluster on the very edge of Council Space. The Alliance maintained a long-range surveillance outpost on Ontarom – a planet in the Newton System – and Shepard had heard rumors that the station had recently acquired intel on either Saren or Geth activity near the borders of the Terminus Systems. For the past week, they had pursued any lead they could find on anything, be it mercenaries, slavers, pirates, Geth attacks – anything that would even hint at the possibility of gaining knowledge of what Saren was up to. All of them had proven fruitless, and Shepard hoped to get the drop on Saren with information from Ontarom.

Liara walked past Shepard, who was attentively peering at the Galaxy Map, to talk to Navigator Pressly. The XO had initially voiced concerns over her presence on the ship, particularly because she was the daughter of Matriarch Benezia – and a non-human. After a stern, but understanding pep talk from Shepard, Pressly seemed to have accepted her presence more willingly. She was about to begin to talk to Pressly when Joker's voice interrupted over the intercom. "Shepard, there's a message coming in from Admiral Hackett. I'll patch it through to the CIC."

The crew in the CIC fell silent, as Shepard took the message. "Commander, we've got a problem that we'd like you to deal with. There have been a string of deaths among elite Alliance scientists over the past two months, all of them suspicious – three were shot in the head, two were poisoned, one was beaten to death, and one was strangled. Colonel Antella – a lead investigator at Alliance Internal Affairs – speculated that there might be a link between the seven of them."

"And was there?"

"Yes, commander. All seven were briefly deployed to an experimental weapons project in November 2177. The project was based on Akuze."

Shepard's face drained of colour, he hunched over as he reached to grip the railings around the map. From where she was standing, Liara could see that his knuckles were bone-white, and that his left hand had begun to tremble violently, "Akuze? But…that's less than a month before we were-"

"Exactly, commander. We're not sure what's going on here, or what the connection to your mission to Akuze is, but we're pretty sure that there is one. We've managed to locate the last of the eight scientists who were posted to the project – a Dr. Wayne – he's reportedly in a facility on Ontarom, and we'd like you to investigate." Shepard nodded silently, and the comm-link went dark.

"Liara," his voice was sharp, devoid of emotion or nuance as his steeled eyes looked at her, "grab your gear and meet Garrus and I at the Mako in ten minutes." He stormed past her in silence, quickly crossing the distance between the Galaxy Map and the door to the crew deck.

Confused, Liara called to him just as he was about to disappear through the door. "Shepard, what is it?"

He hesitated, "I-" his voice cracked, as he struggled to find the words he wanted to say. "I need to get ready." He disappeared, the sound of his rapid movement down the steps audible even from the CIC. Liara was stunned; she had never heard Shepard lose his composure that overtly, and the thought of what might be on Ontarom that could possibly do that worried her.

_**Captain's Cabin – SSV Normandy**_

Shepard sat in the chair in his cabin, his eyes fixated on his violently-trembling right hand. Hackett had forwarded a dossier on Doctor Wayne, but it had revealed precious little. He had been an Alliance specialist in xenobiology working at the new colony, but had been declared MIA two weeks before Shepard's unit had been deployed to Akuze. The nature of Dr. Wayne's assignment was still heavily classified, to the point where even Hackett didn't know all of the details.

What was the connection? Were these scientists' disappearances somehow linked to the bloodbath that had occurred on Akuze six years ago? Shepard had never doubted that Akuze had been an unfortunate catastrophe – Thresher Maws had caused that sort of havoc for millennia, on worlds as diverse as Tuchunka and Jainto, but this had the distinct marks of someone clearing house. If one or two of them had died under mysterious circumstances, he could have written the Akuze connection off as coincidence, but the fact that seven scientists who had been deployed to that colony – mere weeks before Shepard – had all been killed was too strong of a link to be coincidental. These scientists knew something, and they were paying for that knowledge with their lives.

Slowly, Shepard readied himself for the drop, buckling on his armour and grabbing his weapons from his personal locker. As he was preparing to close the locker, he caught a glimpse of a single photograph stashed at the bottom of his locker. He drew it out – it was a photograph of his squad, taken while on shore leave on Bekenstein two months before Akuze. All ten of them were there – the Erickson twins, Steele, Malkin, Singh, Toombs, all of them. It had been the greatest group of individuals that Shepard had ever worked with – he their professional, yet fun-loving Lieutenant.

In the past few weeks, he had felt the new realities of the _Normandy_ begin to chip away at the ghosts of Akuze. He had never fought alongside a group of individuals quite like the one that was now helping him pursue a Rogue Spectre across the galaxy. He had never known a Human as dedicated to justice and the ideals of the Alliance as Garrus was, nor had he ever encountered anyone of any species with the sheer level of mastery of combat that Wrex had. Even the ghost of Emily seemed to haunt him less, as new images began to replace them. He had been surprised when it had happened; for six years, Emily's brown eyes had stared back at him every time he closed his slept, probing his mind. Yet three nights ago, those eyes had dissolved – replaced by a pair of luminous, ocean-blue, Asari eyes.

Yet now the ghosts had returned, threatening to pull him back into the abyss. Silently, he placed the picture back in his locker, sheathed his weapon, and entered the elevator to the cargo bay.

**UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, Ontarom, Newton System**

The planet Ontarom was a curious place. Uncomfortably hot, the Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere of the planet made Ontarom ideal for habitation by the Asari, Salarians, Turians, Batarians, or Humans. When the first preliminary scans had been done by the Alliance, they had anticipated a major rush for colonization rights to the planet, yet this prediction had been marred by the realities of astronomy. Ontarom's moon – Thonal – was in the final stages of orbital decay, and it was expected that within three centuries, the entire planet would be ripped apart by the gravitational force of the moon. Despite this, the Alliance had moved ahead with its plans to establish a communications and surveillance hub on the planet, establishing their first long-range scanning dish in 2175. Since then, the installation had grown to enormous proportions, enabling the Alliance to obtain accurate scanning and communications data from the entirety of the Traverse and the Terminus Systems.

The Mako now sat perched slightly below the summit of one of the peaks of Ontarom. Their scanners had picked up a facility at the base of the mountain, yet it had not responded to Alliance communications codes. Parking the vehicle, Garrus had ascended to the summit alone to scout out the area, his sniper and custom-tooled targeting visor picking out heat signatures, emblems, and intelligence. In the confines of the Mako, Shepard sat in silence, his mind abuzz with thoughts and questions – none of which had easy answers. Liara sat in the mechanic's seat, her own mind faced with just as many questions. Both were interrupted by Garrus returning to the Mako.

"Well, the base is definitely occupied – I counted six soldiers on the outside – and not Alliance either. They were definitely mercenaries, though I couldn't identify the insignia – whoever this is, they clearly brought fire support. I could make out a couple of bodies on the ground as well – one of them was definitely a Marine."

Shepard nodded, restarting the Mako's engines and beginning the climb over the peak. "Then our killer is here. Whoever this person is, they and Dr. Wayne have got a lot of questions to answer."

The Mako's 155mm cannon made short work of the few remaining mercenaries, blasting them into oblivion in a matter of seconds. Slowly, Shepard maneuvered the Mako down the side of the mountain, carefully trying to avoid the spiked ridges and the hundred-foot drops immediately below them. It took nearly five minutes to navigate the quarter-mile between the peak of the ridgeline and the base itself. It was a small facility; a single landing pad for a personal shuttle gave way to a catwalk leading towards the entrance. The door was solid titanium, triple-reinforced to prevent even the most determined attempts at entry. Two scanners were positioned near the door, one of which was now broken, and Shepard saw the signs of a laser-fence generator in the entryway. "High security", he muttered to himself as they approached. He parked the Mako on a narrow outcropping of rock next to the landing pad, straining the vehicle's controls to ensure its secure place on the ground. Disembarking, Shepard joined Garrus and Liara on the landing pad.

Garrus quietly scanned the area, pulling up the thermal imaging on his visor. "The thermal signature on the landing pad is still hot – can't be more than twenty minutes old," his gaze switched to the mangled scanner, "and I'd say that they're still here. Hope they're ready for some company." Shepard drew his shotgun and moved through the open door, Garrus and Liara close behind.

The interior of the facility was much vaster, and more opulent, than the diminutive entrance would have suggested. A wide central corridor branched out into several science labs, one each dedicated to physics, xenobiology, microbiology, biotics research, and electronics research; each contained a full lab apparatus, storage and decontamination facilities, multiple holo-monitors, and isolation safeguards that allowed for potentially dangerous experiments to be contained. Ornate wood tiling – from dark mahoganies to the lighter shades of elm – covered the far wall, giving off the distinct impression that this was a sleek corporate headquarters on Bekenstein or Terra Nova, rather than an underground bunker on a doomed backwater planet. Through the glass panels separating the corridor from the labs, Shepard could make out several bodies in each of the rooms – mostly security forces, though a few science personnel uniforms could also be seen crouched in the corner, gunned down where they stood by trigger-happy mercenaries. Blood coated the walls, as chemicals burned one of the labs to a crisp. Ten feet down the hall, one mercenary was clinging to life, barely alive as he bled out from a gaping chest wound – at least one scientist had fought back, it seemed. Crouching next to him, Shepard rolled the mercenary over onto his back, drawing ragged gasps for air from the man's mouth. He forced the man to look at him, gazing back at dull eyes that were rapidly glazing over from the pain. Not bothering with grace of gentleness, he pulled the mercenary up so that his back was resting against the wall. "What happened here? Who are you working for? ANSWER ME!" he pressed the merc's body against the wall, his hand instinctively putting the soldier's jaw into a vicelike grip. "Where is Doctor Wayne?"

Even if he had been functional and at full-strength, the mercenary would have had a hard time breaking free from Shepard's grip. As it was, the merc could only struggle helplessly as Shepard's biotically-enhanced grip tightened on his jaw and chest. He was off his feet now, suspended a full foot into the air. Slowly, drawing the words out through gasps of pain, the merc tried to respond to Shepard. "He's….in the back….with the commander," exhaustion and blood loss took him, as the merc went limp in his grasp. Shepard motioned to Liara and Garrus, "T'soni, Vakarian, let's move!"

Liara obliged, suddenly afraid of this new persona that Shepard had taken on. This was not the man who had patiently toiled through training with her; this Shepard was edgy, impatient, short-tempered and (if the experience of the unfortunate merc was any indicator) prone to unnecessary violence. What had this scientist – and that planet – done to him? What was the connection? She found herself compelled to obey Shepard, but not by the drive, the draw, and the intensity that she had seen in him before. Now it was sheer terror, a gnawing fear that he would – like some capricious god of vengeance – turn on her or Garrus at a moment's notice.

They reached the door to the back room of the facility. It was labelled as a Conference Room, which suggested to Shepard that there would be ample space for maneuvering, but also many obstacles and cover-spots in the room. Tapping into the comms systems on the other side of the door, he listened in as best he could. He could make out two voices – one accusatory, the other pleading. "Why the hell did you do it, doctor? For two years I've been unable to get the images of that day out my head! You tortured me, just as the others did, and for what purpose?!" The voice sounded familiar, but Shepard couldn't place it.

Shepard turned to Liara and Garrus. "Go back and guard the entrance. I'll handle this alone." Liara looked read to say something, then lowered her head and moved back down the corridor.

Two men waited for them in the Conference Room, behind a row of oak tables arrayed about the room. The man on the left – dressed in a white labcoat with the Alliance markings of a Chief Science Officer – was clearly Doctor Wayne. He openly cowered in fear, as the mercenary on the right pointed a worn-down Kessler II directly at his chest. Whoever this man was, he had clearly seen better days; his armour was of a much older variant of the Elkoss-Combine _Assassin_ armour typically used by smaller mercenary groups in the Terminus systems, and many of the pieces looked to have been scavenged from various sources. The helmet he wore was distinctly of N7 design, a strange item for a bottom-dwelling mercenary to be wearing – Shepard wondered who he'd killed to get it. The soldier held his pistol with precise balance and confidence, yet Shepard could detect the slightest trace of psychosomatic stress – a small twitch in the man's left wrist.

The mercenary turned towards him, keeping his gun pointed at Dr. Wayne. "Stay back! I've got no quarrel with you! All I want is this bastard!"

Dr. Wayne glanced at Shepard, his eyes practically begging for his assistance. "Please, you've got to help me! He's a madman!" He turned back to the mercenary, "Mr. Toombs, you're insane! You need help!"

The soldier cut him off with a warning shot above his shoulder. "Shut the fuck up! You don't get to lie! Not after what you've done to me, after what you did to the men I called brothers!" he turned back to Shepard, "You weren't there, no one else from the Alliance was there! They massacred my unit on Aku-." The thought died in his mouth, as the soldier turned to face Shepard. "No, wait. Shepard?"

_"Toombs! Take Jade, Matthews, Malkin, and Singh. Sweep around the far side and back towards the shuttles. It's our only chance of escape! The Alliance needs to know what's happened here!"_

The man lowered his pistol, "My God, Shepard, is that you?"

_He felt the impact of shards of rock and twisted metal hitting him, heard the screams of Toombs and Malkin, and then only silence. Falling, falling, forever falling._

He knew this man. Once, he had counted him as a brother. "Corporal Toombs? Matthew? You're ali-…" the memory of that day burned through his mind – Toombs's screams as the largest of the Maws descended upon them, "I saw you die on Akuze! I saw that last Maw crush you and Malkin! How did you survive?"

Toombs pulled off the N7 helmet, revealing a man that Shepard had thought dead for nearly six years. He had been a handsome soldier, someone who looked as if the universe would one day belong to him, but those days had long since passed. His eyes, once a brilliant green, were now a dull brown in hollowed sockets, sunken inward from years of weariness. His once-proud face was criss-crossed by scars, the marks of incisions and needles across his neck and jaw. His skin was stretched taught over a now-skeletal frame, and even in his armour he looked emaciated. He gestured at Dr. Wayne, "They took me, Shepard, the scientists."

Dr. Wayne's head seemed to snap towards Shepard, as if some unseen force were gluing his gaze there, "you can't prove any of this! This man's delusional!"

Toombs responded by pistol-whipping the scientist in the upper leg, causing him to collapse to the ground in pain. "I told you to shut the fuck up!" he turned back to Shepard, "they were on Akuze, studying the habits and patterns of Thresher Maws. They disturbed them, unleashed them towards the colony, and then when we arrived they just let them attack us. They let those monsters hit us so that they could watch and study, and analyze." His entire figure seemed to shrink, as the terror of that day flashed through his mind, "I woke up in a holding cell, barely alive. The scientists were delighted that I'd survived. Now they had someone to run tests on."

Anguish, regret, remorse, they all flowed through Shepard. He had thought that he was the only one left when the _Cape Town_ sent their shuttle down; he hadn't thought to look for survivors – no one could have survived that! Everything that Matthew had suffered in the six years since – the pain, the agony, the physical and psychological torture – was his fault, a consequence of his negligence and assumptions. "Toombs, I…I didn't see anybody. I thought you were dead –I thought that everyone was dead," his voice was breaking, "If I'd seen you, I'd have come back for you, I swear to God."

Dr. Wayne seemed to have recovered enough to speak, "this is outrageous! I demand a fair trial!"

Toombs pointed the gun back at his head, "he was there, you bastard! He saw what happened, he knows the truth!" He turned back to Shepard, "they're part of some secret organization – _Cerberus_, they called it. They run secret tests like this. They treated me like a lab animal! This man deserves to die, Shepard! For me, for you, and for every one of our brothers that he murdered on Akuze!"

Shepard didn't know what to believe. Toombs had never been known to lie, and the part of him that recognized this could feel the rage boiling inside of him at this scientist. It had not been an unfortunate catastrophe after all; it had been planned, set up, and executed with brutal precision. Yet the same feelings of doubt and honour that had compelled him when Toombs was still part of his squad gnawed at that fury, dulling it and forcing other action. "Matt, you're better than this. You're not like them."

Toombs turned, his face filled with rage. "Don't tell me what I am Shepard. You got away with a few bruises and a scary reputation. They tortured me for five fucking years! They did things to me that you can't begin to imagine! You can't judge me, you don't have that right!"

Shepard pinned Dr. Wayne to the floor with his biotics, then lunged forward and grabbed Toombs by the chest. "And you think I didn't suffer from that?! You think all that I got from watching our brothers die was a couple of bruises?!" He released his grip on Toombs, "for six years, I haven't been able to close my eyes without seeing their faces staring back at me. Every time I thought I'd finally found peace I'd see Emily's mangled body in my head again, or Adam's body dissolving in front of my eyes!" He was nearly shouting now, and he imagined that Liara and Garrus could probably hear fragments of the conversation. "Matt, if I could have helped you then, I would have. If I could have spared you those five years of agony and torture, I would have, even if it meant swapping places with you. But I can help you now, so believe me when I say that this is not you. You are not a murderer." He turned to the scientist, and quickly used his biotics to lapse him into unconsciousness. "He'll wake up in four hours or so. I promise you that I will see to it that he is tried for what he did to our unit. But I beg you, don't kill him."

After what seemed an eternity, Toombs lowered his gun. "No. I'm not a murderer. They tried to make me one, but they couldn't." He grabbed Shepard by the shoulders, "just make sure that this bastard goes to trial." He glanced at the unconscious scientist on the floor, "maybe the screaming will stop now. I don't know."

Shepard stared into Toombs's eyes, those eyes that had once been a part of the finest soldier in his entire squad. "They can't hurt you anymore, Matt." He turned around, signalling Garrus on his omnitool. "Garrus, radio Joker and tell him to contact Admiral Hackett. Tell him that the Fifth Fleet needs to make a pick-up, Clearance Level Omega-Three."

"You got it Shepard."

**SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Five Hours Later**

Liara sat in the Science Lab of the _Normandy_, her extranet terminal open. She and Garrus had waited near the entrance of the facility for nearly four hours, until finally a shuttle from the Alliance Fifth Fleet had touched down on the landing pad. Shepard had remained in the chamber the entire time, and finally walked out in the company of a mercenary wearing an N7 helmet, and a shackled scientist in Alliance attire. The other soldier had looked a wreck – sunken eyes, gaunt features, a slight limp when he walked – while the scientist had appeared terrified and on-edge. The other two men had departed in silence, before the three of them had returned to the _Normandy_. It had been Shepard's eyes that had hit Liara the hardest. They looked dull and lifeless, where before they almost danced with intensity. Shepard said almost nothing on the return to the frigate, and when he did his voice was so full of anguish and pain that he seemed barely able to speak. Upon their return, he had shut himself in his quarters, and had not been seen since.

There had been whisperings among the Alliance crewmembers of the ship – whispers that he had seen a former comrade of his whom he had thought dead for more than half a decade. It had been Kaidan who had mentioned Akuze – according to Alliance lore, Shepard had been part of a groundside force deployed to the planet, and it had ended in disaster. Desperate for more answers, she had returned to her lab and poured through the results for "John C. Shepard" on the Extranet and through her limited access to Alliance Personnel Files. What she found startled her.

Born to parents in the Alliance Navy, Shepard had enrolled in the Systems Academy as soon as he was able, graduating near the top of his class and receiving his Officer's Commission. He had been the youngest ever graduate of the N7 Program – the top tier of Alliance special forces. His early operations – as part of the elite 3rd Recon Regiment – had been marked by precision, brilliance, and perfection. Several articles she found pointed to his rapid rise through the ranks of the Alliance, and predicted that he would be an Admiral – maybe even a Spectre – before he reached 30.

But after December 2177, the nature of Shepard's profile changed dramatically. The month before, Akuze had dropped off of the Alliance grid, and Shepard had been part of a platoon sent to investigate. They had been massacred within twelve hours of deployment, in the first recorded Thresher Maw outbreak outside of Tuchunka in close to half a century. He had been the only survivor, pulled from the wreckage by an Alliance shuttle. To Liara, it explained everything. It explained Shepard's willingness to step into harm's way to protect those around him, his hesitation in opening up to those around him, his need to prove Ahern wrong when the Admiral had told him that he wasn't capable of doing something.

Sighing, Liara closed her extranet terminal and walked into the Mess Hall. It was deserted, save for Kaidan, who was quietly entering in logs from the landing on Ontarom and uploading them to Alliance command. "How's he doing?" she asked as she approached him.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure. He's been in there well over an hour, and I haven't heard anything from the room."

"Has anyone tried to go and talk to him?"

He shook his head, "You and Garrus are the only ones who know what happened down there – and in typical Turian fashion, Garrus won't broach the subject unless Shepard brings it up. If anyone talks to him, it should be you."

"Me? Why me? I'm not Alliance. Goddess, what am I supposed to do?"

"You're not Alliance, but," Kaidan leaned in close, "but Shepard trusts you." Liara could feel butterflies forming in her stomach as he said those words to her. "You should go and talk to him."

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Alright, I'll see what I can do."

**SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Captain's Quarters**

Shepard sat at the table in his quarters, dressed only in his Alliance Uniform. In his right hand, he held his etched tags, his thumb and forefinger rubbing the scratch marks on the rear of the tags. In his left, he held a single tumbler of Bekenstein whiskey. His mind was a furious din of thoughts. For six years, he had thought himself the only survivor; he had mourned Toombs as he had mourned the other eight men and women who had fought for him. Yet the revelation that he had survived – worse, that he had been imprisoned and tortured by this _Cerberus_ group – had been almost harder to take than the assumption that he was dead. It meant that he had failed again, that a fellow soldier had suffered needless agony for a half-decade because of his assumptions and inaction.

A ding rang through the air, as the door to his cabin slid open. He didn't have to look up to know who it was; Shepard knew that Liara's curiosity would inevitably get the better of her. He could only remain shut in his cabin for so long, and no one but Liara had the courage to try and break that isolation. "May I come in?" Shepard nodded, and motioned for her to sit in the chair opposite him at the table. She sat down, nervously wringing her hands together as she concentrated intently on the table. "Shepard, I'm sorry. I had no idea what had happened, and when no one would tell me the details I found reports from Akuze in the Alliance databases," her gaze shifted to him, then to the drink in his left hand, then to the terminal behind him. "I shouldn't have been prying, I'm sorry, I-."

Shepard cut her off. He had had a feeling that she would do just that; her curiosity was insatiable, uncomfortably so in matters that involved him directly. "Who told you?"

"When Garrus debriefed Pressly, Adams and Joker about Ontarom, there were whisperings among the crew about your mission to Akuze. I did the rest of the digging myself – old ANN stories, Alliance reports in the database that you gave me access to a few weeks ago."

Shepard drained the tumbler, feeling the liquid burn as it trickled down his throat. "And what did those reports tell you? That I presided over one of the worst massacres in Alliance history? That I'm unstable, that I'm not to be trusted with anything too important, lest I screw it up again?" He could feel his voice rising, as emotion began to take over. "That working under me is a virtual death sentence, that I'm liable to leave you to be tortured for five years in an effort to save my own fucking neck?!" He stood up, kicking his chair backwards and facing Liara directly.

Liara didn't move, didn't even flinch. She simply kept staring into Shepard's blue eyes, her focus intent and deliberate to keep her from panicking. "Please, Shepard! They didn't tell me anything, at least nothing that mattered. They told me that you were sent to investigate, and your unit was ambushed, and that you were picked up later by another Alliance cruiser and investigated for your role in the disaster." She stood up as well, slowly pacing over to stand next to Shepard. "But they didn't tell me what I wanted to know: What happened? You're a compelling person, Shepard, yet the moment the conversation drifts anywhere near Akuze, you get taken back to something…something horrible." She took hold of Shepard's arm, pulled his chair back into an upright position with her biotics, and slowly sat him down. "Please, Shepard. I need to know: What happened to you on Akuze?"

Shepard looked at her, the grief and fury in his eyes clearly visible. "Are you sure you want to know?"

She nodded. Shepard sighed. "Alright, I'll tell you."

**Next - Chapter 6: Akuze**


	7. Chapter 6: Akuze

**First of all, my apologies for the slowing of updates – I fell a bit behind on my writing pace while on vacation (midway through Chapter 10 at 101,000 words now) and delayed this to compensate for that. Be forewarned: the chapters start getting a lot longer from here on out.**

**This chapter was the most fun I have ever had writing fiction, and special thanks needs to go to Sargo and Jack of the Blades for their accounts of the Akuze Massacre, both of which provided inspiration and ideas for my own interpretation.**

**_Chapter 6: Akuze_**

"_The planet seems largely devoid of large-scale native life: It is covered in verdant grasslands, rolling hills of red dirt and iron, and deep canyons that are abundant in platinum and iridium. Still, the lack of native animal life is troubling, and should be investigated further by pioneer and xenobiology teams."_ – Initial Alliance Survey of Akuze, 2172

"_All contact has been lost with both the colony and the ground team sent to investigate. No distress beacons were activated, no calls for reinforcements were made. We lack the resources to investigate – recommend deploying the Ninth Cruiser Squadron to further examine the status of the ground team."_ – Final Akuze transmission of Lieutenant-Commander David Anderson (XO of _Warsaw_) to Arcturus Headquarters

**Cruiser SSV _Warsaw_ – December 4, 2177**

_The alarm in the Officer's Mess of the Warsaw blared through the comms system of the cruiser, forcing his eyes open as the high-pitched wail of the siren assaulted his senses. Dazed, his ears ringing, Second Lieutenant John Cameron Shepard slowly pulled himself up out of his bunk. The seven other male officers of the Warsaw were slowly rustling themselves from sleep, each taking their own turn to shout obscenities at the still-wailing alarm overhead. Planting his feet firmly on the cold, steel floor of the cabin, he slowly made his way towards the bathroom, careful to avoid the bunk of Staff Lieutenant Varlamov as the temperamental officer kicked outward reflexively. He checked his omnitool – 0540, shipboard time – and smiled to himself; he had ample time before the 0700 briefing of Officers in the CIC by XO Anderson. He'd be able to adequately shower, breakfast, and possibly even meet up with Emily before the briefing. It was difficult to maintain a clandestine relationship when stationed on the same ship, but between their own subtleness and Anderson's willingness to bend the rules in exceptional cases, they managed._

_He walked into the first of the Mess's shower stalls, letting the scalding water rinse over him. To his left, he could hear as the other stalls filled and turned on. Its heat was purifying, as it cleansed the last vestiges of sleep and weariness from his body._

_"Hey, can anybody tell me why the fuck we have to be up this goddamn early for a 0700 briefing? It's not like it takes eighty minutes to shower, shit and dress." Kyle Palmer's mocking incredulity was audible even over the din of water pouring through the shower stalls._

_It was David Marcos who responded, his thick Catalonian accent cutting his words with precision. "Not for most of us, but for a reina de bellesa like you I'd think that you'd value every second you get." Laughter rang through Mess, and even through the oceans of steam Shepard could almost sense that Palmer's face was reddening._

_Shepard smiled to himself; life had never been better. Assigned to the 3rd ARR right out of N7 training, he'd been deployed to the Warsaw after patrol duty in the Traverse, mostly spent flushing out Batarian stragglers from the aftermath of the Skylian Blitz. They'd gone groundside on seven occasions, all of which ended without any fatal casualties. Two months ago his platoon had been transferred to the Warsaw, in preparation for larger assaults against Batarian strongholds. Some of the more senior officers had heard rumors of a major operation being planned against one of the main merc bases of operation in the Traverse, possibly on Torfan. If that was the target, then the Warsaw would almost certainly be a part of it. Having previously served on the frigate SSV Cannae, he found the Warsaw – though older – to be a vastly superior ship. He loved the space, the comfort of not having to trade sleeper-pods with engineers or technical officers, the joy of being able to access the elite Officers' Mess of a ship with nearly 150 crew members aboard. _

_Then there were his Marines. He led a squad of ten, part of a larger platoon of over fifty spread between the Warsaw and her two accompanying frigates – the Verdun and Stalingrad. All of them had trained in the "N School" in Rio de Janiero, with the lowest of them having achieved his N6 designation nine months ago. There were his corporals: Matthew Toombs – a pure combat specialist, as deadly with his Predator V pistol as his Avenger IV Assault Rifle; Anoir Assad – a skilled Infiltrator, he excelled at avoiding enemies long enough to make them a victim of his Volkov III Sniper Rifle. There were the Erickson brothers – Adam and James, both survivors of a slaver attack on Mindoir in 2170, and Thomas Matthews – a tech expert who had studied Batarian electronics for close to five years. Nor was Shepard the only biotic in the squad – Emile Jade, Vladimir Malkin and Jasmine Singh combined their wide mix of biotic powers (Malkin an Adept, Singh and Jade Vanguards) to deadly effect._

_There was Emily Mercer – the bright, studious, and beautiful girl from Elysium. Born with intermediate biotic tendencies, she had trained as a civilian engineer, before the heroic Alliance defense of Elysium during the Skylian Blitz had inspired her to join the Navy. Within three months, she had been invited to "N School", earned the official designation as a Sentinel, and when Shepard assumed command of her squad she had just recently earned her N5 designation. Even as the heat of the water dulled his senses, he could still see her rippling blonde hair flowing over her shoulders, brown eyes so mystical that he found himself lost in their depths for hours. They were special to one another, and had been almost from the beginning. Three weeks ago, while on shore leave on Bekenstein, they had discovered just how special. The feel of her skin against his, her lips on his as their unclad bodies danced together beneath the stars had been exhilarating, and they had hungered for more at every opportunity they had got. The crew of the Warsaw remained oblivious – only Anderson knew, and he had been sympathetic to the young couple, giving them as much leeway and freedom as he was able to within the confines of Alliance regulations. _

_Shepard stepped out of the shower, turning off the water behind him and wrapping a towel around his waist. He paused in front of the full-size mirror in front of him. As his upper body came into view, he allowed a smirk to play across his face. He'd always been considered wiry and agile during his childhood aboard Alliance vessels, but never powerfully-built. That had changed during Officer's School; his torso now rippled with muscle, the result of thousands of hours of a ruthless training regimen in Vancouver and Rio. Combined with his prodigious biotic talents, he had honed his body into a weapon that the enemies of the Alliance were right to fear._

_Retreating to his bunk, he quickly dressed himself in his Alliance fatigues, sliding the black, grey and blue shirt over his head. He glanced at the clock on his omnitool again…0605. He had taken longer than he'd wanted in the shower, which left him far less time for breakfast and a visit with Emily. Grabbing his dog tags, he jogged out of the Officer's Mess, as the banter of Marcos and Mortimer echoed through the Mess behind him. Reaching the elevator, he quickly keyed in C Deck, and ten seconds later strode out into the Mess Hall of the cruiser._

_It would be another half hour before the rest of the crew of the Warsaw began to trickle into the Mess Hall, which meant that for now the spacious chamber was deserted, save for a lone Fatigue-clad officer seated at the far table. Even from a distance, the profile of Flight Lieutenant Graeme MacLeod was unmistakable. The pilot turned at the sound of Shepard's booted feet, and motioned for the young lieutenant to sit across from him. Grabbing a tray of food – crisp bacon, eggs, and a heap of spiced potatoes (which the ship's cook was famous for across the Alliance) – Shepard sat down next to MacLeod. "Good morning, Lieutenant. How was the night flying?"_

_MacLeod was a bit of an oddity among the pilot class of the Alliance. Where most flight officers stood just over five and a half feet tall, MacLeod's 6'4" frame towered over even Shepard. He had to wonder how the lanky pilot would have survived in the cramped cockpit of a Frigate. Graeme shrugged his shoulders, his short, dirty-blonde hair shaking against his temples. "Uneventful. Ben dozed off two or three times, so it's good that Commander Sprague was asleep, or he would have gotten a lot more than a simple poke to the ribs." The pilot chuckled at the thought – though Commander Phillip Sprague was understanding when it came to his crew, the CO of the Warsaw had no patience when it came to negligence on duty, and his disciplining tongue-lashings were infamous throughout the fleet. His breakfast finished, the flight officer bid Shepard goodbye, before returning to the bridge. Shepard waited until MacLeod was well out of sight before turning to look into the corner of the room. Absent-mindedly, he quickly keyed something into his omnitool. He waited, staring into the corner until he heard soft footsteps approaching behind him._

_A cool hand rested on his shoulder, "Good morning, John." Even as she groggily shook off sleep, Emily's voice was music to his ears. He stood up, turning to gaze into her beautiful face; he put his arm around her neck and drew her in close for a kiss. Despite how early it was, he thought she looked beautiful. Her tall frame fit wonderfully into an Alliance uniform (though he knew it was even better without any uniform at all), and her eyes seemed to sparkle with vitality. A warm smile played across her lips, as she leaned in to kiss him again. "How was the sleep in the officer's quarters?"_

_He shrugged his shoulders as she sat down beside him, moving as close to him as the bench would allow. "Decent, though the 0540 wakeup call is starting to get to me." Her hand reached around his shoulders, and he responded by drawing her in close. "I almost preferred being a grunt – didn't have to be up for 0700 briefings, didn't have to do the rounds on subordinates…"_

_"Didn't have to sneak out to the Mess Hall half an hour early to break fraternization codes with said subordinates," she laughed to herself, causing Shepard to pull her closer. When they weren't on leave, they were limited to precious seconds between shifts, or else shore leave every fifteen days was their only chance to be together. They sat in silence for five minutes, just basking in the joy of being with one another. At long last, as the sounds of other crewmen heading for the Mess Hall became audible, Emily unfolded herself from his arms, and gave him one last quick kiss._

_"I'll see you after briefing," Shepard managed before she slipped away from him and back to her quarters further along the deck. It was just in a nick of time too; he turned to see three fellow members of his squad approaching. Adam Erickson immediately rushed for the food, his eyes practically salivating as he relished the thought of a decent meal after two days out on field exercises. Vlad Malkin and Anoir Assad both made for Shepard's table, sitting themselves down._

_"What's up, LT?" Malkin asked, as Adam returned with food for the four of them. "Any news on where we're headed next?"_

_Shepard shook his head. "Nothing yet, briefing's in half an hour though. Probably another Terminus recon drop."_

_Adam rolled his eyes skyward. "Sprague would avoid giving away hints before the briefing. Boy am I glad that you're the one who has to sit through those and not me." Anoir nearly choked on his eggs as he attempted to simultaneously laugh and wolf down his meal. Shepard could see Malkin struggling to keep a straight face as the corporal regained his composure, and he smiled a bit at the antics of his squadmates. Adam kept talking, "I hope it is prep for retaliation for what happened at Elysium." The Skylian Blitz held special sway in Shepard's memory – it was what had inspired Emily to join the Alliance – but it was doubly so for Adam and his twin brother James. The two were from Mindoir – a farming colony that had been raided by Batarian slavers seven years ago. The two of them had been among the only survivors of the attack, and both still spoiled for revenge against Batarian criminal elements for the slaughter wrought on their families._

_"Well, we'll know when we know. If there's action against a base on something like Torfan, Warsaw will definitely be a part of it," said Anoir, who had recovered from his mini-battle with the eggs. He leaned in close, drawing his voice down to a whisper so that only the four of them could hear it. "You didn't hear this from me, but Joel from down in engineering thinks we're en-route to harass pirate supply lines."_

_Malkin scoffed, "Ramsey told you that? Shit, you know not to believe a word that comes out of his mouth. If you gave that guy an enema he could sleep in a pill container."_

_"Still," Anoir responded, ignoring Malkin's jab at the engineering crew, "it'd be nice to get some light combat in before a full-out assault on a major operating base."_

_Shepard rose from the table, leaving his fellow Marines to enjoy the company of other members of the detachment, who were just now entering the Mess Hall. Shepard enjoyed the camaraderie that he shared with his squad, and it showed in their proficiency in combat._

_Twenty minutes later, Shepard calmly seated himself in the CIC alongside the other officers of the Warsaw. In addition to Varlamov, Marcos, and Palmer – two squad commanders and a weapons specialist – they were joined by Christine Hartman – the Chief Engineer, Piotr Maczek – the Navigator, as well as Major Christopher Burrows – the commander of the Marine Detachment aboard the Warsaw and Shepard's immediate superior. Holographic images of Lieutenants Edward Gillespie and Sean Watson joined the group, as they streamed the meeting from the decks of the Stalingrad and Verdun. The room fell silent as Lieutenant-Commander David Anderson walked into the room. The XO of the Warsaw, Anderson had acted as a mentor to Shepard ever since the N7 Academy, and had specially requested the young lieutenant for service in the Marine detachment of the cruiser. _

_Anderson walked up to the holo-projector of the CIC and quickly keyed in his own password on his omnitool. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," Anderson intoned in his characteristically deep and authoritative voice. "Captain Sprague is currently in his cabin in a meeting with Vice Admiral Zhukov, so I'll be handling the briefing this morning." The hologram projected an image of a small planet, running through reams of vital data on the side: The planet was slightly larger than half the size of earth, with a much drier atmosphere and a slightly higher average temperature, and an orbital period of six years. Located in the Draco Nebula, Akuze was the fourth planet in an otherwise barren system. "In 2172, the Alliance staked a claim to Akuze, a small planet in the Draco Nebula. Apart from some large deposits of iridium, it was an unremarkable planet. At one point, the intention was to establish a surveillance outpost on the planet, similar to our stations now on Ontarom. The planet possessed no substantial native animal life, and the plant life was limited. Eventually, several mining outposts were established to extract the minerals present on the surface." The hologram swivelled, zooming in on the capital of New Solitude, a small prefab colony of about 200 people. "Forty eight hours ago, Alliance Command lost contact with New Solitude. Pioneer Teams were doing something in terms of experimentation on the planet, but we aren't entirely sure what – and the data is still highly classified. Twenty four hours ago Admiral Thrawn deemed re-establishing contact with Akuze a Priority One Alert. Six hours ago, Warsaw and her battle-group were ordered to the system. The Marine Detachment will be going groundside to investigate at 1500 hours. Any questions?"_

_Major Burrows indicated that he wanted to speak. "You said the Pioneer Teams were doing some sort of tests on the surface of Akuze. What exactly were they doing?"_

_Anderson shook his head, "we don't know. The files around it are heavily classified – even Commander Sprague doesn't have the necessary clearance. All we know is that the colony dropped off the grid several hours after the tests began. No distress beacon or emergency channel communications were attempted, and there were no reports of Pirate activity in the area."_

_To Shepard, it sounded suspiciously like a slaver attack. It had been the same routine at Elysium: the colony had dropped out of contact as the mercenary army jammed communications, before a single emergency transmission got out to the Fourth Fleet. Given the ongoing buildup for a major offensive against Batarian positions in the Traverse, a retaliatory strike by slaver interests wasn't entirely out of the question. "Commander, does the sequence of events we do know about at Akuze fit into any sort of pattern, perhaps with Mindoir or Elysium?"_

_Anderson shook his head again. "We've got surveillance buoys monitoring the system, and as far as we know no unidentified vessels have entered or exited the system, apart from a freighter that dropped supplies on Akuze eighty-four hours ago." Anderson eyed the assembled officers. "I suspect that we'll find out what's down there when the marines deploy. Be ready for deployment by 1420. Officers dismissed."_

_Shepard filed out of the CIC with the other officers and pulled up his corporals on his omnitool. "Toombs, Assad, this is Shepard."_

_Toombs's handsome features came into view over the omnitool, with Assad crowded in behind him – clearly in the cabin for the male members of the Marine detachment. "LT, what's going on?"_

_"We've got our deployment orders. A colony in the Draco Nebula dropped out of contact recently, and we've been sent to investigate."_

_Assad's face dropped in mock disappointment, "that lying bastard. I was so certain we were hitting pirate supply lines this time."_

_Shepard shook his head, "we're going groundside at 1500 hours. Can the platoon be ready by then?"_

_Toombs glanced around the room, "honestly Shepard, it would probably be better if we were going groundside earlier than that. You know how restless Emile gets when he has to sit in the armour and do nothing for several hours at a time. But yeah, we'll be ready."_

_"Good. Don't let me down."_

**Akuze – 15:02 Hours Shipboard Time – December 4, 2177**

_The surface of Akuze was a scorched plain devoid of vegetation. The intense heat from the F-Class star Beta Draconis bombarded the surface with ultraviolet radiation, rendering all but the most resilient plant life incapable of surviving in the harsh environment. What few native species existed on the planet came out only by night, and were typically small enough to hide beneath the rocks that littered the surface to prevent overheating in the day. Surface water had long since evaporated, and what few deposits there were of groundwater were typically buried beneath kilometers of basalt rock. In 2172, deposits of Iridium and Copper had been discovered on the planet, prompting a mineral rush by the Alliance to claim the desolate planet for their own. Three years later, the mining community of New Solitude had been established on the planet's surface, with Ashfeld Mining in charge of a small consortium of companies tasked with exploiting the mineral wealth of the planet._

_By 2176, the small colony was beginning to see a bloom of investment from offworld creditors. The initial deposits of Iridium had proven much larger than initially anticipated, leading to a small – but controlled – resource boom that saw corporate interests flock to New Solitude. Built to hold fifty miners and their families, the small colony quickly found itself ballooning to over 200 people, pushing the town to the very edge of its capacity. The boom had brought with it newer mines – four such installations now dotted the surface around New Solitude, and smaller enterprises were often set up by scavenging miners – and just as quickly shut down by a resolute corporate security._

_But in December 2177, New Solitude suddenly dropped off the grid of the Alliance; no communications, no distress beacons, no emergency channels, no warnings of activity from the surveillance buoys guarding the entrance to the system. Akuze was in the heart of the Attican Traverse, and it looked suspiciously like the working of slavers or pirates, possibly retaliating for the crushing defeat inflicted upon slavery interests in the Terminus Systems during the Skylian Blitz. When contact was lost for more than twenty four hours, the Alliance was sent in._

_The five Kodiak drop shuttles carrying the detachment of the Third Advanced Recon Regiment Marines from the Warsaw's battlegroup slowly descended towards the surface of Akuze, their pilots guiding them to a landing zone at New Solitude's small spaceport. Inside the third shuttle, Shepard and his squad prepared to disembark. They had been issued with a full set of brand new weapons: M-8 Avenger Assault Rifles, H-12 Sokolov Shotguns, and X-9 Volkov Sniper Rifles. Standing at the front of the passenger compartment, Shepard surveyed his teammates as they readied themselves; the Erickson brothers methodically cleaned and double-checked their mixed weaponry, as Assad and Toombs did armour checks on the soldiers under their command. Shepard shouted forward to their pilot – Flight Sergeant Miles Backlund, "any scans on the drop zone?"_

_Backlund's voice was barely audible over the din of the Kodiak's engines, as the shuttle wavered back and forth in the heavy wind of the upper atmosphere. "Not much! K-1's scans aren't picking up any life signs, but K-2's not detecting any significant structural damage at the spaceport either. Get ready for deployment, we're forty seconds out from the drop zone!"_

_Shepard knelt down, pulling out his new Sokolov shotgun and testing its mods, making sure its heat sinks and targeting VIs were active and properly functioning. The shuttle rocked back and forth violently, throwing Emily into him. She smiled weakly as she got back up, subtly squeezing his shoulder as he helped her up. Regaining his composure, Shepard turned to his squad. "We're deploying directly below the landing pad of the spaceport. We'll sweep the grounds while Beta and Charlie Platoons clear the building. Assad, take your squad along the wall of the spaceport and cover Toombs and I as First Squad clears the perimeter. Rendezvous with us on the far side of the grid and we'll advance towards the main square of New Solitude."_

_"Twenty seconds!" Shepard turned to look through the tinted windows of the drop shuttle. The Kodiaks were kicking up a lot of dust, making it virtually impossible to see the surface of the planet from the shuttle. He could make out the faint outline of a towering communications spire next to the landing pad. The Kodiaks circled around the spaceport, and as the door to the compartment opened Shepard and Assad were thrown back by the force of the dust being kicked up around them – both grabbed onto the ceiling rails to stabilize themselves. "Ten seconds!" Behind him, Shepard could hear his squad priming their weapons, as mods were activated and thermal clips spent. "Five seconds!" the shuttle floated to a stop three feet above the landing pad, and Shepard could see in the distance as B Platoon disembarked on top of the spaceport complex, quickly securing their perimeters and moving inside. Shepard counted down the final seconds inside his head, grinning with satisfaction as he heard the Kodiak's engines disengage and he felt the craft stabilize. "Get out there ladies, and good luck!"_

_"Go! Go! Go!" Shepard's platoon deployed rapidly, Assad's squad quickly rushing to the far wall against the spaceport while Toombs and Shepard made for the perimeter fence surrounding the complex. When they reached it, Emily quickly used her heavily-modded omnitool to cut through the titanium wire, making a hole large enough for the platoon to slip through. When they were on the other side of the fence, Shepard activated his comm-link and paged Major Burrows. "Warsaw Alpha, this is Shepard and Delta Platoon. We've crossed the perimeter and are awaiting confirmation from Beta and Charlie Platoons. Do you read?"_

_Burrows's voice came in through the audio system in his N7 helmet. "Delta One, this is Major Burrows. I've got confirmation from Varlamov that Beta Platoon has cleared the spaceport. Watson and Charlie Platoon are completing their sweep now. Sweep around and rendezvous with Echo One. I've uploaded coordinates to your omnitool." In the palm of Shepard's hand, a holographic map displayed the features of New Solitude. The main avenues linked at Denali Square, which was indicated as the meet-up point for Delta, Echo, and Beta Platoons. Shepard was quickly rejoined by Assad, whom he motioned to move towards the ridge overlooking New Solitude to scout the area. His Onyx I armour began to glow, as he slowly camouflaged into his surroundings, a key feature of Infiltration specialists with N7 training. Matthews moved with him, as the highly-skilled engineer could easily detect his corporal's movements and provide cover._

_"Charlie Platoon here," Watson's voice rang out over the comms, "we've reached the archives rooms of the spaceport. Corporal Griffin and I are going to try and extract the black-box data to see if we can learn anything. We'll rendezvous at the rallying point. Over."_

_It was Marcos who responded. "Copy that, Charlie One. Alpha Platoon has reached the main road into New Solitude. See you at the rallying point."_

_"Delta Two here, I've got a visual on New Solitude. Delta One, you're gonna want to see this." Even through the patchy connection of the comms, Shepard could hear the urgency in Assad's voice. He motioned to the rest of his platoon into a forced run, with Toombs even going as far as to break into an open sprint. _

_The scene when they reached the top of the ridge brought back memories of Salak, of surveying the damage wrought by Batarian slavers on the small infant colony; New Solitude was in ruins. Once a small cluster of prefab shelters and orbital-drop modules, all that remained of many was a burning morass of twisted steel, shattered glass, and mangled polymer panels. Fires burned openly on the southern side of the colony, as the remains of the shelters slowly decomposed back into the hot wind of Akuze. "My God, this is bad," Shepard muttered absent-mindedly. He flicked on the visual recorder on his helmet, streaming the image back to the other platoon commanders who had gone groundside. "Anderson, Burrows, you guys getting this?"_

_"Good Lord, Shepard. What the hell happened down there?"_

_"Not sure Major. Delta will investigate. Radio Echo One and tell him that we're going to need more manpower to figure out what happened here."_

_"Echo Uno here, señor. We're on our way, ETA dos minutos." Marcos always made a habit of cutting in and out of his native Spanish, and despite the presence of auto-translators, it drove other Marines to distraction._

_As they entered the shattered remnants of the colony, Shepard couldn't help but notice a number of oddities in the devastation. He could clearly see dried blood on the frame of several prefab shelters, yet there were no bodies whatsoever to speak of. The structural damage to the southern side was catastrophic, while the northern side of the colony was basically intact – a few broken windows, the odd bulkhead bent out of position, but nothing near the cacophony of destruction that they were walking through now. Assad seemed to echo his thoughts as he checked back in. "Assad here, I'm in the main square. This is really weird. No bodies, no structural damage beyond Denali Square, plenty of blood, but no traces of weapons fire. It's as if Pirates simply beat everyone to death, took the bodies, and then torched only one side of the town just for fun."_

_That certainly didn't make any sense; it flew in the face of every piece of combat logic he'd been taught during N7 Training. His platoon walked through the colony in virtual silence, awed by the sheer scale of destruction around them. "Anderson, a lot of what we've got down here looks pretty similar to orbital impacts. You said that the buoys didn't pick up any unknown activity?"_

_"Negative, Shepard. The last activity they pick up moving through the system at all – Warsaw excepted – was a registered Ashfeld freighter just over one hundred hours ago. Akuze was definitely still in contact when that happened. Unless the Hegemony has developed stealth technology without the Salarians knowing about it – which is doubtful – there weren't any ships involved."_

_They reached Denali Square, where they were joined by Marcos, Gillespie, Burrows, and the full company of Alpha and Echo Platoons. The Major pulled off his helmet, breathing in the scorching air of Akuze for the first time. The three platoons in the square did the same; several soldiers complained about the excruciating heat. The major motioned to his platoon commanders, who joined him inside one of the intact prefab shelters on the northeast side of the square. "We've got no idea what happened here. Whatever it was, it was definitely bad, but I want to find out more details. When Beta and Charlie get here, they'll start setting up a perimeter in the square. In the meantime, I want Alpha and Echo Platoons running patrols of five around the perimeter."_

_"Charlie One here. Griffin and I managed to extract some of the black-box internal comms data. The time-map points to unusually high energy readings from two points northwest of New Solitude – the Ashfeld Refinery about two clicks west of us, and another unknown site a further click north of that."_

_Major Burrows paused, giving his platoon commanders a strange look. "Unusual energy spikes? Do they coincide with Akuze dropping off the grid?"_

_Shepard could hear Watson pause on the other end of the comm channel, either choosing his words carefully or double-checking the data. "The first spike is about two hours before contact was lost – that's at the Refinery. The second spike is north of there, and happens about forty-five minutes before the colony went dark. Want us to investigate?"_

_Burrows shook his head. "Negative, I need Beta and Charlie Platoons to rendezvous with us ASAP, we need to set up perimeters in the colony, and then we'll get patrols going. Delta Platoon will investigate." Burrows turned to the three Lieutenants. "Marcos, Gillespie, you're dismissed. Start running patrols and establish a perimeter. Shepard, stay here." When the other two Lieutenants had left, Burrows sealed the door behind them, and faced Shepard honestly. "I don't like this, Lieutenant. Energy spikes of that magnitude are odd, unless they were running experiments or tests of some sort. I don't need to tell you what the implications of that would be."_

_He certainly didn't – covert experimentation was frowned upon, especially if even the Alliance didn't have the clearance to know what was actually going on. Not only had it put Human lives at risk, it also had the potential to cause negative repercussions with the Council as well. They would not take kindly to the knowledge that humanity had allowed lethal and dangerous tests to go on without any knowledge from the authorities. "I'm not sure what these miners got themselves into," Burrows said, "but we need to find out fast, or this is gonna become a political shitstorm." He pulled up his holo-map of the surrounding area, flagging the refinery and the unidentified second location. "I'll send Watson and Charlie Platoon to investigate the refinery in an hour or so. In the meantime, get your platoon ready. I want you to investigate the source of that second energy spike. Find out what happened, and where the hell everyone's gone."_

**_CLASSIFIED LEVEL 3 LOCATION CLASSIFIED km west northwest of New Solitude, Akuze, 1842 Hours._**

_"Shepard? Delta Two here, I've found footprints. Thermal scans suggest they're less than twelve hours old."_

_"Finally," Shepard exclaimed aloud. They had left the perimeter of New Solitude close to two hours ago, and had deftly navigated the series of ravines, valleys, and ridges that pock-marked the area. Shepard had taken Emily, Assad, Toombs, and Singh along with him, while Jade, the Ericksons, Malkin, and Matthews ran perimeter patrols at the base camp. A simple two click journey had taken close to two hours, and all five of them were thoroughly exhausted, sweat pouring from their armour and their muscles aching against the sterile heat from Akuze's fiery sun. Shepard's armour was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and he found himself struggling to keep up with Assad, who was taking point on the walk to their objective. They had yet to find any sign of life, or indeed of human activity, thus far, until Assad noticed the footprints._

_"They lead in the direction that we're going. We should probably follow them."_

_The rest of Shepard's platoon formed up behind him, as they traversed another granite ridge. Their map software indicated that the energy spike had come from a narrow gully about 100 metres in front of them, and within five minutes they were descending the steep cliffs into the valley. Well over fifty feet deep, the gully cut another thin scar into the endlessly malleable terrain of the planet. Sparse plant life clung to the sides of the cliff, desperate to avoid prolonged exposure to the intense heat of the sun._

_"Holy shit, whoever went down here must have been suicidal. There's no way that a sane human being would ever try and scale down this cliff." Shepard found himself agreeing with Singh's assessment._

_"Jasmine, you'd have to be insane to live on this planet in the first place," Toombs retorted. "The only reason none of us are dead from heat stroke yet is because these damned suits of armour keep moisture and circulation going so well."_

_It was Emily who responded, "They certainly came here for a reason. John, my omnitool scanners are picking up all sorts of weird readings in this ravine. It's like the ground underneath us is almost hollowed out." She maneuvered out of the way as Singh tumbled down the cliff beside her, catching herself against two outcroppings of rock. "Do you think they were mining in here?"_

_"Not likely," Assad responded, himself much farther ahead of Shepard and the rest of the platoon. "I have yet to find anything resembling heavy mining equipment. If there's big hollow spaces beneath our feet, they're likely natural catacombs."_

_Carefully, the platoon reach the bottom of the gully, taking care to leave arrester cables leading back up to the top, so that they would have an easier ascent. In the depths of the canyon, the rays of sunlight played with the clouds of chemicals above them, colouring the sky a deep hue of orange. The clouds seemed to part, giving Shepard a clear view of the slowly-merging stars. The view differed on every world, and the dusk sky on Akuze was incredible. The multicoloured rings of the Cat's Eye Nebula glistened brightly even with the sun still out, giving off a dazzling display of colour._

_Emily moved to stand beside him, giving his hand the lightest of touches. "It's beautiful," she muttered in awe. She looked up at him and smiled; even fully armoured and covered in dust and sweat, she was still beautiful to look at. John smiled to himself; there would be plenty of shore leave after this deployment, and a chance for them to enjoy each other's company for the first time in too long._

_"Lieutenant? Assad here; I believe I've found something, a cave entrance, I think. You might want to come take a look at this."_

_The moment passed, John once again became Lieutenant Shepard, Emily reverted to Private Mercer, and they continued onward. Toombs and Singh followed close behind, taking care to keep their balance in the narrow confines of the canyon floor. Without the sun to act as a guiding light, it became disorienting to try and positionally navigate such a claustrophobic space._

_"Look at this," Assad noted as Shepard approached. A thin veil of foliage – the first green they had seen in their entire time on the planet – gave way to a small opening in the canyon wall. The chamber was spacious, large enough for a fully armoured Marine to crouch comfortably, and quickly twisted off into a cavernous set of labyrinthine catacombs and passageways._

_They could get lost in there for hours, perhaps even days, and never find the exit. Shepard turned to Assad, "Did you bring flares?"_

_The young corporal smiled. "I thought you'd never ask," pulling a stack of two dozen flares out of a compartment on the back of his armour. "I knew there was a reason I chose to forego an assault rifle – I could carry more of these things." He quickly struck the first one, placing the glowing orange flame at the entrance to the tunnel. Slowly, the five of them moved further into the chamber, with Assad placing flares every ten feet to keep their exit well lit. _

_Shepard briefly stepped back out of the tunnel, picking up a shaky signal to the rest of his squad. "Jade? This is Shepard. We've found the source of the energy spike –it's emanating from some sort of underground cavern. We're investigating."_

_"Roger that, Shepard. We're completing our patrol and returning to New Solitude. Emile out." Shepard felt the signal weaken as he stepped back into the tunnels, the fifty feet of sheer rock above them blocking even the most hardened comms units. _

_Cautiously, the five of them entered the confines of the tunnel, taking care to place flares periodically to make sure they didn't get lost in the labyrinth of catacombs. "Shepard," Emily said, "I'm getting some funny readings here, electronic magnetic waves. There's electronic equipment of some sort down here." She bent down, picking her way through the dirt until she found what she was looking for. A narrow electrical cable ran several inches below their feet, winding its way further into the catacombs. "Should we follow it and see where it leads?" Shepard nodded, and Emily moved in front to lead the way, her omnitool acting as a guide as it read the electromagnetic impulses coming from the cable._

_It brought them to a hollowed-out chamber about two hundred metres from the entrance. Where the previous tunnels had been barely large enough for a fully-grown soldier to move through, this chamber was enormous. A vaulted dome-like ceiling stretched at least twenty feet into the air, their footsteps reverberating around the cavernous room. As they crossed the threshold into the space, several banks of lights flickered on, flooding the previously dark corridor with blinding iridescent light. Banks of monitoring stations lined the walls, and several cots and mattresses rested in the middle of the chamber._

_Singh moved towards one of the terminals, examining it closely with her omnitool. "What on earth were they doing here?"_

_Shepard tried to key in general network access, but was greeted with a warning that his access attempt had failed. "Whatever it was, it wasn't the Alliance doing it. I don't have access to their network." He moved to a large, central bank of computers, one of which was flickering on and off. Beside it, the workings of a makeshift sonic resonance device lay in shambles. "Possibly trying to image the catacombs? Looking for valuable minerals?"_

_Assad nodded. "Whatever it was they were doing down here, it looks like they're long gone. Thermal imaging is minimal – I'd guess we're the first people in here in well over forty-five hours or so. Chronologically, that would line up with the colony losing contact with Arcturus."_

_Toombs walked up to stand beside Shepard. "Any chance we could try and hack these?"_

_Shepard shook his head. "Doubtful. Encryption this sophisticated will take a long time to break, and Major Burrows wants us back in the perimeter before nightfall. Emily, see if you can get a data-mine going on the terminals. If we have to bug out, we can upload the data to the Warsaw once it's done decrypting the information." Emily went to work, pulling a small domed device from her armour, she methodically attached the device to the back of one of the computer terminals. After keying in several complex formulas on the holographic keyboard, the device beeped several times, and then camouflaged in with the rest of the computer terminals._

_"There we go. Not sure how long that will take, but once it's done we just send a shuttle around and recover the data-disc. The data will be fully decrypted, so we won't have to waste our time with the Alliance bureaucracy."_

_"Excellent work Emily. Everyone, let's move out. If they want us back by nightfall, we'll need to double-time it back to the colony. Let's move Delta Platoon!"_

**_New Solitude, Akuze, 2013 Hours._**

_Shepard sat in the makeshift war room with Major Burrows, Gillespie, Marcos, and Varlamov. Watson had opted to remain at the Ashfeld Refinery through the night, in order to better monitor some of the data they were receiving from the terminals there, as well as get a recon force out the next morning. The remaining forty Marines were encamped around Denali Square, calmly setting up shelter for the harsh night that was to follow, cleaning their weapons, and logging as much intel as they could gather from their meagre surroundings. He surveyed the officers in the room, noting how differently each of them handled the stress of uncertainty. Marcos calmly tossed his combat knife up and down in the air, catching it both by the blade and the hilt in an alternating fashion; Varlamov and Gillespie were huddled in the corner, pouring over the reams of data they were slowly getting back from the Refinery. On a table near a sealed bulkhead, a comms amplifier broadcast incoming chatter from Watson and C Platoon. Burrows simply watched, waited for one of his lieutenants to break the deafening static silence in the room._

_It was Marcos who broke the silence, catching his knife and plunging the blade deep into the floor. "So what do we know? What happened to the colonists?"_

_"We're still getting data back from Watson and Charlie Platoon over at the Refinery," Burrows responded, "and the data-mine that Shepard put in place is slowly cracking through the encryption on the files they found. Based on the footage you got me, Shepard, I'd say that they were conducting some sort of seismic imaging tests, probably trying to map the catacombs."_

_Varlamov turned away from the data in corner. "Right, but that still doesn't answer what the hell happened to the colonists. The entire time we've been here, we haven't seen any bodies, any signs of human activity, or anyone who survived."_

_"That's not entirely true," Shepard retorted. "One of my corporals found footprints leading towards the tunnels that we investigated. Their time-stamp coincided with the loss of contact."_

_Burrows pondered this new information. "I don't like this, Shepard. We're sitting here in the middle of a half-destroyed colony, and all the information we need to actually do our job is either missing or classified."_

_"We'd best hope that Watson manages to find something over at the refinery," Gillespie added. "Even if we could get a sense of what went on here, that would at least be _**_something_**_ to go on."_

_Burrows nodded, "If there are no new developments by morning, we're going to broaden our search patterns. I've asked for the Warsaw to air-drop a couple of Grizzlies for us, so at least we can cover more ground. We'll stay holed up here – if nothing else, we're close to the ExFil point."_

_Shepard left the building, going outside and walking directly towards the rapidly-setting sun. Despite the last vestiges of dusk slowly edging over the horizon, the surface of Akuze was still uncomfortably hot – probably thirty or thirty-five degrees. The dust had at least died down, as the afternoon wind subsided with the sun. He quickly went to where his platoon had set up camp, passing by Toombs and Malkin as they brewed a large barrel of coffee, in preparation for a long night of being constantly alert. The chatter from C Platoon was being broadcast over the still-functioning comms system for the main square, allowing the entire detachment to be aware of what was happening at the refinery. Even in these conditions, Shepard had to admire the efficiency and professionalism of the forty men and women that made up the Warsaw's marine group; no one openly complained about the heat, and they silently (if grudgingly) prepared for their duty._

_Shepard sat down next to Emily, as she was checking omnitool data. "Anything come in yet from the data-mine?"_

_She shook her head, "not yet, and the signal's been pretty weak with all the interference from the rock around it. Hey," she touched her ungloved fingers lightly against his arm, "you okay?"_

_He took a long time to answer. "Yeah, it's just that I hate walking blind into something like this."_

_"It could be worse." She lithely slipped her fingers into his hand, "one of us could be here without the other." She rested her head against his shoulder, and Shepard reached around and put his arm around her. "It'll be nice to get more shore leave after this, won't it?"_

_He smiled, "it will be. Are you sure you want it to be like Bekenstein? I don't want to pressure you unnecessarily."_

_She chuckled softly to herself. "I thoroughly enjoyed the last time you applied pressure. Just like Bekenstein, but let's not wait until the last six hours this time." _

_He cupped her chin in his free hand, and brought her lips to his. They tried to kiss and speak at the same time, making it so they didn't as much hear the words as feel them. "I promise you that."_

_Without warning, the chatter on the comms system flared up. "Hold on, something's happening. Keyes, what did you do?"_

_"Nothing, LT. The seismic scanner's been running resonance readings of the catacombs for close to an hour now. I haven't touched the damn thing in forty minutes."_

_"Are you sure? We just got a spike in the readings, like some sort of noise is being emitted. Try calibrating the resonance imager again."_

_"This is Major Burrows. What's going on at the refinery, Watson?"_

_"Major, the seismic imaging equipment automatically turned on about an hour ago. It's been mapping the catacombs underneath the surface. They're definitely not natural – too many sharp turns and angular cutoffs. We've got a ping in the imaging."_

_"Charlie One Watson, this is Charlie Seven Keyes. The mics in my helmet just picked up whatever that equipment did. It's not a hardware error."_

_"Shit, whatever that noise is, it's heading our way. Holy hell, it's heading our way fast."_

_"Warsaw, this is Charlie One Watson. We've got large-scale unknown readings heading through the catacombs towards us. Requesting permission to bug out and return to perimeter. I repeat, we are requesting permission to, holy f-."_

_Watson's request for orders was cut off by a deafening roar over the speakers, as if the fury of a thousand voices were overpowering the platoon. They could hear the screams of humans, of Marines, yet over it all they heard a guttural scream, a primal din the likes of which none of them had ever heard before. The entire camp was on their feet within seconds, weapons pulled out and orders being shouted to Marines. The screams went on for what seemed like an eternity, chilling the nerves of those who could hear them through the artificial confines of the communications link._

_Then all at once, it stopped as quickly as it had begun. No one spoke, lest a slight detail be missed. Every pair of eyes was fixed, rapt, on the speaker in the centre of the square. No one loaded their weapons, no one checked their omnitools. After nearly a half minute of silence, Watson came over the comm system, his voice panicked and frantic. "This is Lieutenant Watson. Charlie Platoon is dead, I repeat: Charlie Platoon is dead! We have encountered unknown hostiles, I repeat: Unknown hostiles. Recommend you get the fuck off this planet as soon as poss-." The rest was drowned out in static, as the line went dead._

_Forty seconds of absolute stillness followed; no one said a word, and no one moved a muscle. It was Varlamov who finally broke the silence. "Major? Whatever they were picking up, it's heading our way." Shepard's attention went to the surface, as the ground beneath them started to shake. It was slow at first, but the seismic tremors rapidly became more pronounced; Marines began to lose their balance, and the composure of many of the younger solders in the detachment began to ebb away. Shepard joined his platoon at the east edge of the perimeter, their rifles loaded and pointing outward._

_Burrows came sprinting into the centre of the square, quickly trying to establish a link to the Cruiser. "Warsaw, this is Major Burrows. Charlie Platoon has encountered extreme hostiles; all Marines in the platoon are presumed dead, Lt. Watson included. I am requesting an evac for all units of the Warsaw's battlegroup currently deployed to Akuze. Get the Kodiaks down here as soon as-."_

_He never finished his sentence._

_Shepard watched in horror as the ground beneath Denali Square split open, in a hellish cacophony of concrete and shrieking. Out of the darkness it rose. The head was something out of a nightmare, with rows of spined and spinning teeth flanked by two powerful mandibles that pulled the Major into their depths. Jaws of bioluminescent blue snapped open, emitting a piercing shriek to the heavens that caused every Marine in the colony to freeze with fear. The monstrosity kept rising, collapsing the centre of Denali Square into a massive sinkhole. Its body was long and serpentine, its massive frame easily as thick as the largest of tree trunks back on Earth. Shepard felt his knees give way, as primal impulses commanded that he be awed and terrified of the leviathan that continued to rise from the depths. it was impossible to tell through the dust and chaos how long the thing must have been in total, but Shepard would have guessed easily a hundred feet. The creature rose sixty, maybe seventy feet into the air, before twisting itself back around. It dove, acid spraying from its jaws as it came down hard on a group of five marines from Echo Platoon. Shepard could hear their screams, hear as they were torn apart by row upon row of razor-like serrated teeth, as their flesh quickly boiled off their skin from the exposure to the acid. Just as quickly as it had come, the thing was gone, its body disappearing back into the depths._

_All hell broke loose, as once-disciplined Marines felt the urge to survive take over their senses. A group of five from Alpha Platoon broke into an open run for the spaceport. They made it twenty yards, when a second monstrous serpent burst through the ground, consuming them just as quickly as the first group had died. A third one emerged from the now-burning ruins of a prefab shelter, smashing through the reinforced steel as if it were cardboard. It caught Varlamov and half of B Platoon with a burst of acid, burning their flesh down to the bone in a matter of seconds. _

_Shepard had heard stories of these things. The Alliance had never encountered them before, but they had a long and storied history in the fiery wastes of Tuchunka. Even the mighty Krogan were said to know fear when these leviathans erupted from beneath the battle-scarred wastes of the decimated planet. It could survive anywhere, even in the vacuum of space, live in any soil conditions, go decades without food or water, and were virtually impervious to gunfire, weapons-fire, temperature extremes, and even ship-mounted cannon fire. It was a word whispered with fear by surveyors on any new potential colony: Thresher Maws._

_As the two-hundred foot leviathans continued to lay waste to the remnants of New Solitude, smaller crevasses erupted in the surface of the planet. Smaller, infant Thresher Maws – barely twenty feet in length – emerged from the bowels of the earth, pulling individual soldiers down with them. A corporal from Echo Platoon struggled frantically as the infant Maw quickly coiled itself around him, pulling both of them under into the crevasse. The screams continued for three or four seconds, then stopped abruptly, replaced by the sound of bones splintering. _

_Assad fired at anything that moved, hoping to at least stun even one of these infant monstrosities. He caught one that was advancing at Lt. Gillespie square in the side of its spinal plates, eliciting a roar of annoyance from the (comparatively) tiny creature. The thing leapt at him, its mandibles splayed wide and ready to tear into flesh. Shepard and the rest of Delta platoon poured fire at it, slowing it down in an indelible hail of bullets. After what seemed forever, the beast finally stopped advancing towards them, and gave a final quiver before collapsing into the ground in a pool of green blood. The ground beneath it boiled, as the highly-acidic blood mixed with the earth to sink the Maw's body back into the tunnels._

_Assad turned to Shepard, "Thanks for the assist. Turns out you can kill these things." Yet he had left himself dangerously exposed, as another infant Maw erupted from the surface behind him, throwing itself jaws-first directly at the young corporal. The razor-sharp mandibles grasped around his neck, severing the spinal cord just above the shoulder-blades. His headless body was pulled down into the dust, as the Maw disappeared back into the tunnels. Twenty paces from them, a marine had gotten separated from his platoon, and was caught in the open in a group of six marines – including Lt. Marcos. They lasted a matter of seconds, as another of the massive horrors descended on them, its jaws open. The Maw plunged through the ground, carrying their six broken bodies with it into the depths._

_"This is Lieutenant Edward Gillespie, Alpha Platoon. Evacuate the colony! Retreat to the spaceport, shuttles are on their way from the Warsaw. I don't care how you get there, I don't care who you get there with, just get the fuck off of this planet! Carlyle, watch your six, there's another of the big Maws on your tai-."_

_Shepard didn't need to be told. "Delta Platoon, get to the LZ! Move!"_

_He ran, not even because he had been ordered to, but because it was the only instinct his adrenaline-filled body would listen to. The destruction grew worse all around him, as the gargantuan horrors slaughtered what was left of the battlegroup; they were shredded alive by the spinning rows of teeth, dissolved in acid, or simply crushed by the sheer weight of the leviathans. To his left, half of his platoon sprinted for cover, as the remnants of the prefab colony were demolished around them._

_He saw Emily trip and stumble into the dirt, saw as Adam Erickson slowed his pace to help her to her feet, watched in horror as the shadow of an enormous Thresher Maw darkened the sky above them. Her beautiful eyes connected with his for a single moment, filled with fear, regret, and sorrow. Time seemed to slow, as he gazed on her beautiful face for what he knew was the last time. As darkness incarnate descended upon them, she mouthed three words: "I love you." Then she was gone, buried in an inferno of dust, ash, and teeth. Shepard turned away, his eyes filled with tears. He pulled his gloved hands over his ears, willing himself to blot out the screaming emitted by his dying love. _

_He scrambled through the nearest prefab shelter, joining Toombs and the remaining four marines of his platoon. He saw Erickson attempt to duck left into another shelter, but was forced to watch as it too was consumed in a burst of acid from the nearest Maw. He saw the pained expression on Toombs's face, and knew that the young corporal would never be the same again. If they got out alive, none of them would be._

"_Toombs, take Jade, Matthews, Malkin and Singh. Sweep around the far side and back to towards the shuttles. It's our only chance of escape! The Alliance needs to know what happened here!"_

"_Shepard, we have to search for survivors!"_

"_If we do, we're done for. There are maybe ten other marines still alive. If any of them made it out of the main square, they'll meet us at the spaceport. You heard Gillespie – it doesn't matter who we get there with, just fucking get there! Move move move!"_

_The five of them bolted through the back door of the prefab shelter. All around them, the night sky grew red with the fire from the smouldering buildings. They ducked, darted, twisted and dove through the wreckage of the colony, dodging bursts of acid as they made a desperate attempt to make it back to the shuttle. They were halfway to the edge of the settlement when the Maw burst through the ground directly in front of them. Malkin and Jade were killed instantly, as shards of twisted metal pierced right through their armour. He felt the impact of shards of rock and metal hitting him, heard the screams of Malkin and Singh, and then only silence as he lost consciousness. Falling, falling, forever falling._

**_New Solitude, Akuze, December 6, 2177, 0640 Hours_**

_Pain, an agony unlike any he had ever felt before swept through his body, his nerves screaming as if they were on fire. His lungs gasped for air, and yet burned furiously, distilling their rage at their disturbance into his throat. He could barely feel his hands or feet, and wondered if had indeed lost them. Blood hazed over his vision, obscuring his view of the sky and turning the bright, young blue star into an orange eye of hate, vengefully staring down at the shredded remnants of New Solitude. Slowly, he became aware of his surroundings again. He was pinned under a massive metal beam, his torso feeling the strain of the added weight; he was almost certain that several ribs were cracked. He tried to lift it with his own strength, but his wounds, his exhaustion, and his mind-numbing pain inhibited him. Reaching into his subconscious, he tried to call up some flare of biotic power, anything that would get this damned beam off of him. He found nothing – no last reserve of strength, no final flare of awesome power. Resignation washed over him; he would die here, die on this blasted world that he had been sent to. _

_He would join them here, the nine men and women he had served with these past eight months. They had all died, slaughtered around him in their vain dash to find shelter. James and Adam Erickson had survived everything – the destruction of their homeworld of Mindoir, the Skyllian Blitz, the Ison Corridor Run – but had found their graves beneath the ruins of New Solitude. He had seen the few survivors disappear in a torrent of dust kicked up by another of the other-worldly horrors; no one could have survived that. Emily had been the most painful, the most bitter. Twelve hours before, they had been talking of their future, of the life they planned to build together, of the dreams they hoped to fulfill with each other, and now she was dead, her body mangled and broken by these…things. Unchecked, tears streamed down his face, conveying dozens of emotions – despair that all of his dreams had been taken from him in that one instant, rage at the unknown, unseen force that had decided that he would be the one to suffer this. Rage welled up inside of him, giving him that last reserve of strength; summoning every inch of biotic power he could muster, he threw the beam off. His legs screaming agony, he slowly lifted himself up, staring at the devastation in front of him. Nothing had survived –no building, no road, no person. Fires burned in the distance, lighting the dawn sky with hues of red and gold._

_For the first time, and hopefully the last, in his life, he was completely and utterly alone._

_"This is the Alliance Cruiser SSV Cape Town. Does anyone read? I repeat: Does anyone read?"_

_The voice over his comm-link jolted him back into reality: help was on the way. Slowly, struggling, his throat burning as he tried to speak, he responded. "This is Lieutenant John Shepard, N7 Marines, of the Third Advanced Recon Regiment, attached to the SSV Warsaw. I'm the only one left."_

_Silence on the other end, then incredulity. "Can you confirm, Lieutenant Shepard? Say again, you are the only one left?"_

_"Yes. Our detachment was attacked by Thresher Maws and wiped out. I just regained consciousness." His head felt like it was about to split open from pain; he could now definitely feel that several of his ribs were broken. His armour was cracked and disjointed; the plating below the knee was gone in its entirety,_

_"Uh…roger that, Lieutenant. We're deploying a Kodiak shuttle to the spaceport in New Solitude. Will you need medical assistance?"_

_"Yes, just…just get down here ASAP." Slowly, taking deliberate steps, Shepard began to limp back towards the spaceport. The sun's Western rising gave him the only hint of his location, and he followed the ruins as far as he could. The colony had suffered even further damage than when he had arrived. Virtually no building remained standing, and the soil was scarred with the signs of acid burns. The ground beneath his feet had become cracked and buckled, as the Maws had emerged from their tunnels time and time again. Bodies lay strewn all around him, most of them in gruesome stages of dismemberment. It took him a full ten minutes to reach the edge of the ruins of New Solitude; he was losing blood, fast. On the horizon, he could see the telltale engine pattern of a Kodiak Drop Shuttle, its small frame speeding towards him._

_"This is K-4 of the Cape Town. Lieutenant, I've got you on my visual. Check your six! Good God, what is that thing?"_

_Behind him, the rubble of one of the prefab buildings shook, as an infant Thresher Maw wormed its way out of the wreckage. It spotted him immediately, rearing its mandibles in an aggressive stance. All at once, the adrenaline returned to him, giving his muscles a much-needed boost as he drew his pistol. With one hand he fired concentrated bursts at the creature's head, while with his left he summoned his biotic strength to him. He deployed his barrier just in time, as the Thresher Maw's lethal acid swirled around him, greatly sapping his strength but causing no actual harm to him. He trapped the Maw in a pull field, rendering it helpless as he guided it up off the ground. Holstering his pistol, he brought his right hand into a fist, drawing the energy together to summon a Biotic Warp directly at the infant Maw. The force of his biotics tore through the creature's carapace plating, drawing screams of rage and pain from its neon mouth. It thrashed in the air, desperately trying to overcome the field it was trapped in. Its thrashings served only to cause it more pain, as Shepard fired repeated rounds from his Kessler III directly into its softer underbelly, where the plates were not yet fully formed. At long last, the thing went limp, Shepard bringing it back down to earth with a thundering crash._

_That got their attention. He could see the form of a fully-grown Thresher Maw in the distance as it arced up through the surface before burrowing again. The ground beneath him shook, as the rage of the planet's parasitic predators made itself known. Even the shuttle pilot could sense it. "This is K-4. The LZ is too hot. Get to the roof of the spaceport and we'll pick you up there."_

_Shepard bolted for the security of the building, leaping over the wall directly through a broken window. He criss-crossed the freight area with ease, knocking several crates out of his way with biotics as he ran. The ground was beginning to shake more violently now, and the telltale roar of the Thresher Maw could be heard in the distance. He took the nearest elevator, ascending to the highest level he could possibly go to. He ascended a final set of stairs to the roof of the spaceport._

_The Kodiak waited at the edge of the roof, hovering two feet above the spaceport and waiting for him. Two marines – both marked in the insignia of the 5th Frontier Division – stood waiting to help him into the shuttle, while a medical officer was seated on the far side of the shuttle. He sprinted desperately across the roof, willing every aching muscle in his body to outrun the Thresher Maws that were quickly approaching the building. He jumped for the shuttle, connecting with the floor plate just below his shoulders. He heard a sickening crack, and knew that one of his ribs was now definitively broken. The two soldiers grabbed both of his forearms, hauling him into the shuttle as the spaceport behind them dissolved in a morass of teeth and scales. The shuttle's pilot gunned the engines, throwing the shuttle skyward and barely managing to avoid the leaping body of the Thresher Maw. The shuttle door closed behind him, sealing the compartment from the stiflingly hot air of Akuze._

_The medic quickly came to examine him, tearing his chest armour open and pressing two fingers against his ribcage to feel for the broken bones. Shepard winced in pain as the broken rib flared up. The medic quickly scanned his chest with his omni-tool. "One broken rib, two additional cracked ones. Given enough sedative and time, you should be fine. Likely six weeks for a full physical recovery."_

_"You gave us quite a scare down there, Lieutenant." A fourth individual entered the compartment from the cockpit, bearing the unmistakable insignia of a Lieutenant Commander. "What the hell happened down there?"_

_Shepard could feel himself rapidly losing consciousness, as the pain from his wounds overwhelmed him. "We were…attacked…Thresher Maws…colony destroyed…all dead. They're all dead…tell my XO… I'm sorry." He collapsed in a heap as the medic applied a heavy sedative and painkiller to him, and his world went black._

**_SSV Normandy_ – 2183**

"I woke up in an interrogation room, my hands and feet chained to the chair. They pressed a light into my face, bombarded me with questions: What were we investigating? Why had we been deployed? Why weren't proper safety protocols taken? How were the fifty best men and women in the Alliance wiped out in the space of five minutes? They put me in front of a Board of Inquiry – they thought the whole thing had been my fault."

He clenched his fists together, a subtle flare of his biotics accompanying his rage. "For six years, I was treated as mentally unstable, as a liability and a risk, someone who couldn't be trusted. For six years, every time I try to sleep I see the faces of my Marines staring back at me, accusingly, blaming me for their deaths."

Liara sat across from him, completely silent. Her eyes never left his face the entire time he spoke save to wipe several tears from them. Hers were tears of sorrow, for a life so completely torn apart and shaped by such horror.

"Those twelve hours changed my entire life. I'd never tell the Alliance this, but I've never fully recovered from that day. You're the first person I've told that to in its entirety. You must think me a coward, for locking those memories away, for avoiding any possibility of them being brought up."

"Shepard, I-," she paused, feeling a lump develop in her throat that seemed to prevent the words from coming out. "Goddess, I never knew. I'm so sorry for prying, I…I had to know."

"And now that you know, what do you think?"

Her eyes stared into his own. Strangely, he found himself becoming lost in their blue depths, mesmerized by the way the light seemed to dance in them. "There is something compelling about you, Shepard; I noticed that even when you first brought me on board the _Normandy_. You showed a remarkable will to live, you survived what others could not."

Shepard shook his head, "I was lucky. Nothing more, nothing less. Better men than me died on that planet."

Liara put both of her hands on his shoulder, pulling him so close that he could practically feel the heat of her breath against his face. "Listen to me. You were meant to survive Akuze. I don't know why, but you survived for a reason. In Asari understanding, every action is part of a greater, conscious whole. It didn't just happen because of luck; you survived because fate needed you to survive." She looked directly into his eyes, seeing the fire begin to return to them, "I need you to believe that. We all do."

Shepard was silent for a long time, his internal conflict visible in his expression. "I'm sorry I burdened you with this, Liara. I thought I'd managed to shut this all away a long time ago, but seeing Toombs alive, and realizing that the entire thing was a damn setup…it was too much." He removed her hands from his shoulders as he stood up and slowly walked towards his terminal. "But thank-you; you're the first person I've ever told about Akuze. I needed to get that off my chest."

Liara walked towards the door. "I appreciate it, Shepard. I care about you, and I don't want this to consume you." The door opened, as she returned to her quarters, "Goodnight, Shepard."

Shepard waited until the door had shut behind her, before returning to his bed. He hadn't realized just how much he had needed that catharsis, that release of pent-up emotion that had lingered for the five and a half years after the end of the formal investigation by the Alliance. It felt oddly freeing, to even just have told someone what happened on Akuze. It felt as if a great weight were being lifted from his shoulders, a burden that at last was not being lifted alone. No one – not his mother, not Anderson, not Hackett – had ever managed to pry those secrets loose, and yet Liara had done so. To be fair, no one had ever persisted in tying together the woven threads of his past nearly as much as she had, yet he felt as if it worked both ways; just as she had yearned to know, he had found himself wanting to tell her, wanting her to understand what he had gone through. She was different than the rest of the crew aboard the _Normandy_; she seemed drawn to him in a way that no one else on the ship was.

And he was beginning to feel drawn to her too. He had been puzzled when her eyes first appeared in his clouded and dream-filled vision, breaking the hold that the former Delta Platoon had once held on his subconscious memory. Yet there was so much about her that made it less surprising. She understood his connection to the Protheans, something that no one else on the ship could say, and she seemed to trust him implicitly. Shepard lay back on his bed, closing his eyes and slowly drifting off into sleep. He subconsciously waited for their faces to appear again, to stare at him accusingly, haunt his vision…

But they never did. For the first time in months, he slept a dreamless sleep, save for a single image that burned with a fire in his mind: Two bottomless, beautiful, azure Asari eyes.

**Next – Chapter 7: Matricide**


	8. Chapter 7: Matricide

**Work continues apace at the draft, sitting now at just over 108,000 words and nearly done Chapter 10.**

_**Chapter 7: Matricide**_

"When Brother fights Brother, and Parent fights Child, then will you know that the last days of your beloved Republic are upon you." The Sibyl of Rome

**SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Kepler Verge Cluster**

"Shepard?" The flanged voice emitting from his omnitool forced him awake, as he shrugged off the most restful sleep of his life. Clutching his forehead, Shepard slowly forced himself to sit up in his bed. It had been one of the most restful sleeps he could remember, one undisturbed by the nightmares that had dogged him of late. He felt rejuvenated, re-energized, as if his body was screaming with energy and stamina that it had not felt in a long time.

"Shepard?" Garrus sounded excited, even slightly worried and on-edge, which had Shepard concerned. The Turian was remarkably adept at staying calm in virtually any situation – a by-product of his relentless training as a sniper, and if something had him spooked, it was worth looking at.

"I'm here, what do you need Garrus?"

"Commander, I've found something that you might want to take a look at. It's about Saren." He was definitely awake now, the name of his target shooting adrenaline through his nerves and sending his heartrate skyrocketing.

"I'll be down in a minute." He jogged out the door of his cabin, his mind racing with possibilities. What had Garrus found? Was it an old C-SEC connection? Had the Hierarchy forwarded intel? Shepard skidded to a halt next to the cargo elevator, nearly bowling over Kaidan as the LT threw himself out of the way. Shepard grinned sheepishly as the elevator door closed behind him, "sorry about that, Lieutenant. Carry on." Kaidan merely rolled his eyes as he disappeared from view; Shepard was certain that he'd hear about that later.

The elevator doors opened. "What do you have, Garrus?" The Turian leaned against the wall of the ship, his omnitool out and transmitting data at a frantic pace. "You said you've got something about Saren?"

The Turian nodded. "You remember how the Alliance tried to get Binary Helix to turn over information pertaining to Saren?"

Shepard nodded, "I seem to remember us getting stonewalled pretty badly by the company. They're infamous for their secrecy."

"Given the sort of research they're doing, that's hardly surprising. On a hunch, I ran a search of all of Binary Helix's registered research facilities in Council Space – two on Earth, one on Mars, one on Triton, a couple on Thessia, and one on Noveria." Garrus pulled up several packets of information on his omnitool, all of them pertaining to Noveria. "A former co-worker of mine left C-SEC about eighteen months ago to take a corporate security job on the planet – Synthetic Insights, internal affairs, that sort of thing. We'd collaborated on a couple of fairly difficult cases two years back, so we still had some overlapping contact networks. I asked him to keep an eye out for anything unusual at the Noveria labs of Binary Helix – executives, major shipments, strange reports, that sort of thing."

Shepard nodded, impressed with Garrus's ingenuity. "Did he find anything?"

Garrus smiled wryly, "two things, actually. First, a transmission was intercepted requesting the presence of a Binary Helix executive at their research facility on the planet. Apparently these guys screwed something up, and they're asking for the higher-ups to help them deal with it. Twelve hours ago, a Binary Helix company ship docked at Port Hanshan on Noveria. According to my friend at SI, it matched the ID of a transport registered to one Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, a member of the Binary Helix Executive Board."

Shepard wasn't sure whether to be ecstatic or filled with dread. They had their lead! After nearly a month of fruitless searching, they finally had a solid lead on Saren and his allies. But the thought of having to confront Matriarch Benezia, of having to confront Liara's mother, caused his stomach to plummet in fear. "Does Liara know?"

Garrus shook his head, "I figured it wasn't my place. Think it'll be an issue?"

"I certainly hope not. I'll talk to her. Excellent work Garrus. This is our first lead in nearly a month. I appreciate your initiative."

Turians couldn't blush, but Shepard was certain that Garrus would be if they could. "Thank-you, Commander."

"Joker," Shepard called as he re-entered the elevator. "Plot a course for Noveria – Pax System, Horsehead Nebula."

"You got it commander." Shepard walked through the medical bay, pausing at the door to Liara's quarters. This was not going to be fun.

Shepard hesitantly knocked on the door to Liara's lab; when he heard no response, he entered. The Asari was fast asleep, fully clothed and resting peacefully on her small cot in the corner. One hand rested against her left cheek, and she seemed to be smiling even whilst sleeping. She looked positively serene, and Shepard hated to wake her. She stirred at his entrance, and her eyes shot open, the serenity vanishing along with her sleep. Groggily, she sat up on her cot, rubbing her eyes to shake off sleep. "Shepard, what is it?"

"We've got a lead on Saren. We're en-route to Noveria in the Horsehead Nebula." His face wore a mask of indifference, trying to hide the turmoil eating away at him, knowing what he had to say and yet fearing to say it.

Liara stood up, "That's good news. But why talk to me specifically, unless…" her eyes widened, and she fell back slightly against the wall. "What is it? What's happened?"

"Liara," Shepard hesitated, "I don't know how to say this, but…it wasn't Saren; it's one of his lieutenants. It's your mother."

Liara bowed her head slowly, yet Shepard could see her shoulders trembling ever so slightly. Her breathing slowed as she struggled to get her heart-rate under control. "Oh Goddess, what…what is she doing there?"

"I'm not sure. Something to do with Binary Helix Corporation." She looked about to speak, but Shepard stopped her with a slight hand gesture. "I know what you're about to say. No, I don't think it makes you a liability to the team. You're not military, but I trust you." She seemed to relax as he confided his trust in her, ever so slightly raising her head back to his. "I want you to come with me when I look into this. If anyone deserves answers to the questions we have about Benezia, it's you."

"I-," Liara stumbled, struggling to find the words, "thank-you, Shepard. I appreciate your trust in me. Goddess, what could my mother be doing?"

A single tear formed in her left eye and slid down her cheek. Sensing the inevitable, Shepard quickly put his arms around Liara and drew her close. "We'll get answers Liara. I promise." He released her, and walked back out of the medical lab. "The _Normandy_ will reach Noveria in three hours. Be ready to go groundside with Garrus and I."

He had barely reached the door of the medical bay when his pulse began to climb. As he had embraced Liara, for a split second he had been aware only of her – the smell of Elysium orchids that clung to her skin, the play of the muscles in shoulders, the feel of her ragged breath against his chest. What the hell was coming over him? If it was what he thought it was…that wasn't good. There wasn't time for that right now. They were about to go after her mother, of all people, and he couldn't conceive of many outcomes that ended well for Benezia or Liara. If the Asari Matriarch forced his hand, he would kill her; he had to in order to stop Saren. But he knew what it would do to Liara to watch that happen.

And that was not a prospect that he looked forward to.

**Docking Bay, Port Hanshan, Noveria – Pax System – Horsehead Nebula. 16:27 local time**

"Turians hate the cold, Shepard. Did I mention that?"

Shepard itched with impatience as the _Normandy_'s VI synchronized the interior pressure of the ship with the atmosphere of Noveria, slowly flooding the pressurized bulkheads and compartments of the frigate with the frigid air of the ice planet. Even through the door of the _Normandy_ and the protective heat-panels of the docking bay, he could feel the beginnings of the freezing wind outside of the structure, a wind that chilled the bones of all who felt it. When the Alliance had discovered Noveria in 2161, every other Citadel Species –Batarians included – had passed on the opportunity to contest colonization rights. A frozen ball of ice, rock, and snow, even the Alliance had refused to fund the development of any sort of colony; it was written off as prohibitively expensive, with very few possibilities for established habitation.

Earth-based corporate interests had thought differently though. In 2163, the Noveria Development Corporation had been formed, and had quickly built a privately-owned colony in the snow-swept gorge surrounding the Litani Mountain chain. Nearly two dozen 'hot labs' had been constructed – private research facilities that could be leased to companies looking to do controversial or dangerous research. Because it was privately owned and developed, Noveria wasn't technically considered Council territory, and thus laws pertaining to corporate regulation and research limits were almost nonexistent. So long as a company didn't upset the Noveria Executive Board, they could do virtually anything they wanted in the confines of their labs. The activities in the research facilities sparked dozens of conspiracy theories and rumours; word was that the awesome killing power of the M-240 Avalanche 'cryo-gun' had been developed on Noveria, and whisperings of even more terrifying developments – biological weapons, chemical nerve agents, and worse – made their way around the Extranet.

Shepard, Garrus and Liara waited in the decontamination chamber, Garrus checking and rechecking his omnitool and sniper rifle for computing or hardware errors. Liara was visibly nervous, as the prospect of what they might find with Benezia terrified her more than any other member of the crew. Garrus was noticeably on-edge about having to deal with the unconventional realities of being on Noveria. Wrex had pulled the three of them aside as they were preparing to disembark to warn them about the planet. "Be careful out there," he had told them, "These people will smile to your face as they stab you in the back. I've made a lot of money on this planet – the quickest way to move up the corporate ladder is often to kill the guy above you." That knowledge certainly hadn't helped to ease the tensions they were all feeling.

_"Logged: The Commanding Officer is ashore. XO Pressly has the deck."_ The VI's voice chimed in as the three of them left the confines of the Normandy, walking into a wall of cold air. Port Hanshan was a modern corporate haven in every sense of the term – the indoor luxuries afforded were nearly endless – but the hanger that the _Normandy_ had been directed to was very rugged. A pile of crates stood near the exit from the docking arm, and two other ships were docked in the hanger – a _Kowloon-_class cargo freighter, recently arrived from Earth, and a sleek unmarked craft. The shuttle was nearly forty feet long, with two airlocks near the front. Unlike the bulky exterior of the larger Alliance shuttles, this craft was sleek and luxurious from the outside, distinctly of an Asari design – curved and flowing corners, pristine chrome plating on the doors and wings, radial engines that seemed to mesh perfectly with the form of the shuttle itself. There were no visible markings, no indication of a pilot, and no indication of what its cargo had been. Asari craft lacked the tacked-on habitation modules of Human freighters; the entire module was built into the structure of the ship itself.

The catwalk to the Port Hanshan Customs and Security was deserted, save for four armour-clad security guards waiting for them by the gateway into the building. They wore the trappings of Elanus Risk Control Systems, a private security and weapons design firm that frequently provided muscle-for-hire to corporations willing to meet their exorbitant fees. Two carried shotguns that Shepard was almost certain were illegal– they resembled the 'Eviscerator' models so commonly used in the Terminus systems, and rumored to have been developed by Lieberschaft Systems on Noveria. Clearly, ERCS had gotten preferential treatment, despite the weapon being in violation of nearly a half dozen weapons treaties. One carried a Predator pistol, while the fourth had a large assault rifle.

"That's close enough," the lead security guard stopped them with a raise of her hand, as the other three kept their weapons firmly trained on Shepard and Garrus. "I'm Captain Matsuo, in charge of security at Port Hanshan. Per the requirements of the Noveria Development Corporation, I'm going to have to ask the three of you to relinquish your weapons."

"I'm Commander John Shepard, and I have Spectre Authorization to carry weapons in this colony. I'm afraid we won't be giving them up today."

The captain's lip curled, as the three security guards behind her pointed their weapons directly at him and Garrus. One of the guards, a blonde female who looked as though she'd gladly snap Shepard's head in half if asked, cocked her shotgun, and Shepard could feel the beginnings of biotic power emanating from her. "I find that hard to believe, Commander. If we let every drug-addled lab rat who claimed to be a Spectre carry weapons in here, we'd be stupid."

"Captain Matsuo, stand down! Shepard's Spectre Authorization just cleared, they're good to carry weapons in here." The female voice over the intercom startled the seven of them out of their adrenaline-fuelled standoff.

"Very well, Commander Shepard; you may keep your weapons. But we'll be watching you." The four security guards stood off to the side, the blonde one still giving him a look that could have killed.

Garrus leaned forward as they passed through the glass gates. "She seemed nice," Shepard quipped.

Garrus snickered, "watch yourself, Shepard. Technically, we're no longer in Citadel Space."

The glass doors gave way to an austere stone chamber, the walls lined with stucco and security drones. There was only one way in or out of the room, past the scanners situated on the far side of the chamber. The customs desk was on the other side of the scanning bays, and a single dark-skinned, short-haired Human woman in a frighteningly magenta dress sat at one of the terminals. As the three of them passed through the scanners, the security alarms started going off wildly. Several security guards came rushing from behind customs, all of them scrambling to figure out how weapons had gotten past the docking bay security in the first place.

"Don't worry, they have clearance," the woman at the terminal ushered them through the scanners. "I'm Gianna Parasini, Special Assistant to Administrator Anoleis. Welcome to Port Hanshan, Commander Shepard. It's an honour to have a Human Spectre in our midst."

"Thank-you, Ms. Parasini. I'm here on Council and Alliance business; has anyone unusual passed through here recently?"

Gianna paused briefly, thinking the question through to give the answer that the NDC would desire. "Unusual? An Asari Matriarch passed through a few days ago. Lady Benezia, I believe her name was."

Liara shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably behind him. "Then she's still here?"

Gianna nodded. "She's on the Executive Board of Binary Helix, and was headed to one of their research facilities outside of Port Hanshan. To the best of my knowledge, she's still there." Shepard turned to leave the Customs depot. "One more thing," Gianna added, "you may have noticed the extremely heavy blizzard outside – all roads out of Port Hanshan are closed without prior authorization from Administrator Anoleis. You'll have to get a pass from him."

The three of them continued onward through the far exit, coming to a sleek glass elevator to the main lobby of Port Hanshan. The rounded doors slid open, revealing a spacious and well-lit interior, so different from the cramped and ragged spaces of starships or the Citadel Wards. The doors closed behind them, as the facility VI chimed in over the loudspeakers. _"Welcome to Port Hanshan, the galaxy's most respected site for independent scientific research and development. For your safety, and the security of others, please obey all directions given by security personnel. Should you have any questions, our friendly administrative staff will be more than happy to help you. Thank-you, and have a pleasant stay."_

Garrus scoffed, "if by 'independent' they mean 'legally questionable and too dangerous to do anywhere else', then I'd say that's accurate." The elevator opened to reveal a massive interior lobby. The room was enormous, probably two hundred feet across and half as wide. Spacious glass windows covered the far wall, revealing a harsh blizzard snowfall outside, the sun barely visible through the thick layer of cloud and whiteout conditions. Massive slabs of concrete created the illusion of confinement, choking off the floor level into various niches and nooks. ERCS guards stood at attention every ten or fifteen metres, their weapons loaded and their eyes alert for trouble. Everywhere they looked, Administrative staff and businesspeople seemed to shrink away from them, retreating into huddled groups or throwing suspicious glances their way. The guards seemed to clutch their weapons more tightly as the Spectre passed, suggesting that they expected a firefight to break out at any moment. "This seems like a homey bunch," Garrus muttered under his breath.

Liara shivered as she glanced outside. "The weather out there looks horrible. Thank the Goddess it's warm in here."

Garrus was skeptical. "If we're going to try and locate your mother, we'll have to go out into that blizzard. Fortunately, Shepard, you seem to have a knack for picking squadmates who _love_ that sort of weather."

They entered Anoleis's office, where a now-present Gianna Parasini stood behind the reception desk. "One moment, commander Shepard. Administrator Anoleis?"

"Yes? What, what?" The voice on the other end was impatient, as if Shepard had interrupted the most important time of his day.

"Commander Shepard is here to see you."

"Yes, alright, fine. Send him in." Gianna showed them through to the main office, where a scrawny Salarian sat, typing furiously into his holo-terminal. For all the power he wielded as the overseer of Noveria's commerce, Administrator Anoleis was an unimposing figure. He stood less than five and a half feet tall, even shorter than Liara, and had a blue-grey skin-tone.

"You will excuse me if I don't stand up. I have no time to entertain spaceborn vagabonds."

His knowledge of Shepard's origins caught him a little off guard. "I see you've done your background checking."

"You're a Spectre, one of the few from Council Space who has authorization to even be here. While that does mean you're able to get in the door, this greeting is merely a courtesy. I will only cooperate as required by the Executive Board. Businesses come here to avoid the second-guessing of galactic law."

Even though Noveria's reputation was widely known throughout Alliance space, Shepard was still struck by how nonchalant Anoleis seemed about the total lack of oversight. "Are you telling me that you have no safety protocols?"

The Administrator seemed incredulous. "Don't be ridiculous. Do you think a for-profit company would take no precautions against loss of life and material? Project leads have the final say here, not meddlesome politicians or bureaucrats."

Shepard could tell he wasn't going to win this argument, so he opted to change the subject. "I'd heard that Matriarch Benezia passed through here recently?"

Anoleis nodded, still refusing to glance up from his terminal. "She passed through two days ago, with a platoon of Asari Commandos and a lot of cargo. She was going to Binary Helix's Peak 15 Research Facility."

Garrus could hardly believe the calm in the Salarian's voice as he mentioned the Asari Commandos. "Commandos? That doesn't strike you as a bit odd?"

"They followed all regulations, I had no reason to question them further."

"What about the cargo? What was in it?"

"I only know that it was sealed, did not contain life forms, and passed our scans fine. To pry beyond that would reflect poorly on the Executive Board."

"In that case, I need to get to Peak 15."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, commander. The road is closed due to weather, and you need special access from me to be able to venture out of Port Hanshan. I'm afraid I won't give it; your presence here is a liability to the Executive Board, and I will not have Council Spectres running around with free reign in my facilities. Do I make myself clear?"

Shepard gritted his teeth, choking back the urge to punch this obstinate Salarian in the face. "Yes, Administrator. We'll be going then." The three of them turned to leave his office.

"Good, I received about a dozen important messages while you dithered away." Shepard could hear Garrus breathe in sharply, then sigh to himself as they exited the room.

"Well that went well," the Turian's words were dripping with sarcasm. "Any ideas?"

Shepard shook his head. "Let's ask Parasini. She knows Noveria way better than we do, and I would rather not risk a diplomatic incident in here."

Anoleis's secretary remained exactly where she had been, standing at attention and smiling to herself. "You're not used to navigating the corporate world, are you commander? You can't just bludgeon your way through bureaucracy."

"I don't know; I can bludgeon pretty hard. What would you suggest we do?"

Gianna glanced around her office, before leaning in close to Shepard, Garrus and Liara. "Talk to Lorik Qui'in. He's in the bar of the Port Hanshan Hotel; I can't say anything more within earshot of Anoleis. He'll have answers for you, and possibly a Garage Pass." Shepard nodded, and immediately left the office to head for the hotel lobby.

They moved fast, briskly walking across the vaulted hallways of the room. "Garrus, when we were in there you made a motion as if you knew who Lorik Qui'in was. What's the connection?"

"He's my contact on Noveria. He used to work for C-SEC a couple of years back – internal affairs and finance crime. He left about two years ago, took a job with Internal Affairs for Synthetic Insights here. We worked together on a couple of big smuggling cases in the Zakera Wards three years ago. Let's see what all he knows."

**Port Hanshan Hotel – Five Minutes later**

"Detective Vakarian, it's been a while. Sit down, have a drink. What brings you to Noveria? Surely not C-SEC business." Lorik Qui'in sat in front of them in the bar of the Port Hanshan Hotel; the lobby shared the same austere setting and decorative style as the rest of Port Hanshan. Looking at the older Turian, Shepard never would have guessed that he had once cut his teeth in C-SEC. He looked the consummate businessman; his manner was exceedingly professional, he dressed himself in a cropped and finely-cut blue suit, and he spoke with an air of authority and refinement that was uncommon in Council Space. It was his eyes that gave him away as a C-SEC operative; they were constantly darting across the room, taking in information at a rapid pace, flagging everyone around him as a potential criminal – which in Noveria, probably wasn't far off the mark. Shepard had seen Garrus do this dozens of times, and it spoke of someone dedicated to information gathering and ready to react at a moment's notice.

"Good to see you again, Lorik. I'm actually no longer with C-SEC; I quit a month ago. I'm working with Commander Shepard now, Alliance Navy and Spectre."

"That doesn't surprise me; you never did like all of C-SEC's regulations." Lorik turned to face Shepard, his mandibles quivering slightly as he focused on him. "So you are the new Human Spectre. What could an old Turian like me possibly help you with?"

"We're looking for Matriarch Benezia T'Soni. According to Garrus and Administrator Anoleis, she passed through here recently."

"Indeed she did, with a troop of Asari Commandos along with her. Between her own pinstripe suit and the Asari body armour, they had most of the tongues around here halfway to the floor."

Liara shifted uncomfortably behind him. "Human males have always had a rather unhealthy obsession with my species."

As a member of the aforementioned group, Shepard chose not to comment. "Any indication of what she was here for?"

"I believe she was here on behalf of the Binary Helix Executive Board, and one of their prominent investors – Saren Arterius, I believe. Isn't he a fellow Spectre?"

Garrus answered, "not anymore. He was declared to have gone Rogue and was stripped of his status. We're currently trying to find him and apprehend him. We're trying to get to Peak 15, but the roads are closed and the Administrator has barred access to the garage."

"You need a pass, how fortuitous." Qui'in drank from his small glass of Turian brandy. "The Administrator is an interesting man. He has become quite wealthy since he took direct control of rents."

Shepard could see where this was going. "That seems…convenient."

Qui'in nodded, "indeed. He's been demanding rent kickbacks from companies based on Noveria, mine included. A week ago, the Executive Board started a formal investigation, and I was tapped to act as an advisor to the investigators. Your goal lies outside this port, and Mr. Anoleis has been disinclined to let people wander these days. He's fearing for his job, and rightly so. I, however, would be happy to give you my garage pass. But if you find anything at Peak 15 that would contribute to the investigation, I would ask that you pass it on to me." The Turian quickly pulled up his omnitool, and transferred his pass authority to Shepard. "Good luck out there."

Shepard thanked him, and walked back towards the Garage. It was a short distance from the hotel, located in the far wall opposite the Administrator's office – thankfully, far enough away that Anoleis wouldn't notice their departure.

The guard at the garage looked at them suspiciously, but reluctantly waved them through when their pass checked out as legit. The garage seemed oddly deserted – one Mako, two Grizzlies, a handful of smaller two-man survey craft, and a large stack of opened and empty crates, all marked with the Binary Helix logo, stacked in the corner. The room was silent, too silent.

Shepard stopped Garrus and Liara, "I don't like this. Something seems off." He unclipped his assault rifle from his back, and cautiously moved into the vast expanse of the garage. His footfalls were the only sound in the room, and they reverberated off the concrete slabs that formed the wall. He wasn't picking up any bio-signs, no hints of biotic power, no wayward breathing. There it was! A single click, then another in rapid succession. Now he knew what was in those crates.

The Geth sprang from everywhere – tucked away into the rafters of the ceiling, from the shadowy interiors of the boxes, from behind and below the vehicles in the garage. As the only tech expert in the group, Garrus reacted immediately, unleashing a torrent of electrical energy at the largest clumped group of the synthetic warriors, immobilizing them and frying their weapons. Four agile Geth Hoppers sprang across the room, darting between the ceiling and the floor as they focused finely-honed precision shots. Shepard threw one against the far wall, shattering it into several pieces, as Liara suspended several more in the air, making them easy targets for Garrus's sniper rifle. Within fifteen seconds, the Geth were a twisted hulk of metal lying against the far wall.

Captain Matsuo and three of her security team burst through the door to the garage, their weapons drawn. "What the hell were those things?"

Shepard turned to them, his hands raised to indicate that the situation had been resolved. "those were Geth. They were in the boxes brought by Matriarch Benezia." Matsuo's face went pale. "How many crates were there altogether?"

Matsuo looked like she really didn't want to answer. "There were dozens. They could have packed hundreds of those things in there!"

That was all the prompting Shepard needed. Garrus was already clambering into the Mako, powering up its systems and checking its electronics to make sure they were sufficient. He and Liara joined the Turian inside the cramped confines of the vehicle, before barreling out the opened door into the havoc-inducing blizzard raging around them.

It was time to find out what was happening at Peak 15.

**Peak 15 Research Facility, Rift Station – 20:23 Local Time**

_"Now arriving at Rift Station. Warning: Contaminants are loose in the Hot Labs. Quarantine Level Six has been established."_

The tram ground to a halt and Shepard, Garrus and Liara disembarked into the subterranean catacombs that formed the Rift Station. Peak 15 had been easy enough to find, despite resistance from Geth platforms along the way, and had seemed fine at first; no overt signs of damage, no corpses. Apart from the absence of civilians or researchers, everything seemed fine.

And then they had come – the shrieking, scuttling insect-like horrors, akin to something out of their worst nightmares. The beasts stood nearly five feet high, their jaws spraying acid and their claws ready to strike. They had overrun the main portion of Peak 15, slaughtering most of the Binary Helix crew that maintained the facility. The Station VI had sent itself into shutdown mode to prevent an outbreak. These were no accident; these things were bred to destroy, and they seemed damned good at it. Garrus's armour was thoroughly scarred from a direct hit by acid, while Liara was exhausting herself under the strain of keeping her biotic barriers up against this sort of onslaught. The source of the contaminants was the Rift Station, an underground facility adjoined to the main part of Peak 15.

Shepard and his companions cautiously exited the tram, weapons drawn and checking their corners thoroughly. These things were prone to jump out from nearly anywhere – corners, ventilation shafts, even from burrowed lairs underground. They made it out of the foyer without incident, and came to a room with four exits in it. One door, locked from this side, led to the Hot Labs, where the VI said the contamination was coming from. Two others were unmarked, while a fourth led to the Mess Hall. It was the only one that didn't bar them access, so they took the elevator behind it.

They were greeted in the Mess Hall by four armour-clad security guards, one of whom nearly pulled the trigger on them. Their leader was a bald human, his hands shaking and his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. All four looked as if they had been surviving on stim packs for days, and they were so exhausted that they could barely stand.

The lead guard lowered his weapon. "You have no idea how nice it is to see a friendly face. We've been holding these things off for days. I'm Captain Ventralis, I'm in charge of the guard detail in the Rift Station."

Shepard extended a hand. "Happy to help. I'm Commander Shepard, Council Spectre."

Ventralis's eyes widened. "A Spectre? Binary Helix really did call in the big guns. You're here to help us?"

He shook his head, "not originally, no. I came here looking for an Asari Matriarch – Lady Benezia – who sits on your Executive Board. Have you seen her?"

"Afraid I haven't. No one has come to the Rift Station in close to two days now, not since the Quarantine locked down the trams. It's a good thing that VI was as alert as it was, otherwise these little buggers would be crawling all over Noveria by now."

Garrus walked forward, holstering his rifle as he approached Ventralis, "Any idea what they are?"

"Nope, I'm not one of the scientists; I just guard the door. All I know is that they keep coming up from the Hot Labs through the vents about once every few hours. Han Olar was the last one out of the labs before we initiated the quarantine. He's down in the Medical Bay, but he ain't all there anymore" he gestured over his shoulder, "talk to him if you want answers. If you need Medigel, Dr. Cohen's in the labs working with a few quarantine victims as well."

Shepard nodded, and maneuvered past Ventralis and the other guards into the hallway behind him. The back rooms were darkly-lit, and filled with the survivors of the outbreak from the Rift Station. In addition to six or seven Binary Helix guards, about a dozen scientists and techs stood clustered around the room. Two guards lay on resting cots, nursing wounds of varying severity – one of them looked to have lost an arm, though whether to surgery or direct battle it was difficult to tell. At the side of the room, a lone Asari stood against the wall, her face calm and her eyes closed. Her face was taller and thinner than Liara's, and her skin had a slight teal tint to it. She was wearing Binary Helix lab gear, but nevertheless carried a sidearm and a fairly powerful biotic amp; Liara whispered to him that it was a Savant model from Serrice. He walked up to the Asari, curious as to what information she might have for him.

She appeared extremely annoyed at his presence, "you're interrupted my meditation. What the hell do you want?"

Shepard was taken aback by her tone. He'd talked to dozens of survivors of traumatic events such as had happened in the Hot Labs, yet she seemed to display none of the usual signs; her hands were perfectly still, her eyes focused, her breathing normal. "My apologies for interrupting, I just am trying to find out what happened here. Who are you? What do you do here?"

That he continued with the questions just seemed to annoy her more. "My name is Dr. Alestia Iallis, from the University of Aurais. I'm a molecular geneticist; I look at neural flux variation in genetic patterns between cloned individuals, tracking neuro-protein changes and their impact on microbiological variation." When she got blank stares from all three of them, she visibly rolled her eyes. "Fine, then. In Army grunt terms, I take stuff identical samples, expose them to different environments, and track changes in neuron genetic evolution at a molecular level."

She was quite off-putting, and Shepard didn't like her one bit. "Have you seen an Asari Matriarch around here, Benezia? We'd heard that she was at Peak 15."

"No, I haven't, and that's all the answer you're getting from me; stop wasting my time."

"Wait," Liara interjected, "Benezia's my mother. Surely you'd recognize another Asari in an all-human research facility."

She had ceased to be annoyed, and was now visibly angry. "For the last time, I do not 'know' Matriarch Benezia any more than your intrusive and obnoxious human companion 'knows' President Huerta of Earth. Now get out of my way."

They clearly weren't getting anything more out of her, so Shepard opted to check out Dr. Cohen in the Medical Bay instead. As the shutters leading to the Mess Hall closed, Garrus looked from Shepard to Liara. "First the blonde security guard who was ready to kill us at a moment's notice, then an Asari that makes even the most obstinate Turian General look polite. I hope all the women on Noveria are this nice."

Dr. Cohen's medical bay was a cramped room burrowed into the bowels of the facility. Four cots lined the walls, all filled by scientists and soldiers with breathing masks and quarantine suits on. Liara instinctively moved a hand towards one of them, crouching down to look at what had happened to them.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you," Dr. Cohen warned. He was an older dark-skinned man, with the frame of a scientist and the eyes of an explorer. "They've been exposed to some pretty nasty stuff. I don't think it's contagious, but I wouldn't take my chances."

Liara withdrew her hand, standing to face him. "What happened to them?"

"We were experimenting with a toxin extracted from the creatures in the Hot Labs, trying to both weaponize it and develop and antiserum. When the VI went down, it broke quarantine. The Rift Station's actual doctor got killed in the Hot Labs, so I've been filling in, though with mixed success. If you want more details, go talk to Han Olar if you want more details. But be gentle with him. He was in the Hot Labs when they broke quarantine. He's been pretty badly affected by it."

They found Han Olar under quarantine, once they had talked their way past the guard. The Volus sat huddled in a corner, his respirator clicking regularly as he breathed in and out. He looked up as Shepard, Garrus and Liara walked in. "I know what you are here for," he intoned monotonously, "you're here because of our mistake, because of our foolishness with the Rachni."

Liara's jaw nearly dropped, "the Rachni? But they've been extinct for twelve hundred years! The Krogan wiped them out at the end of the Rachni Wars."

"Not completely extinct," Han Olar corrected her, "Binary Helix found an ancient egg in stasis aboard a derelict vessel drifting in space. It was the egg of a Rachni Queen. Binary Helix brought it here, and hatched it; in hindsight, that might have been a mistake."

His candour took Shepard slightly aback. "Why are you telling me this? This must be top-level secrecy in Binary Helix."

"I no longer have an interest in keeping Binary Helix's secrets. I don't have control over who lives or dies – not anymore, at least. I was in the Hot Labs when quarantine was broken. Nearly everyone died."

"Then how did you get out," Garrus asked.

"I killed her." Olar regarded the shock on the three's faces, "a co-worker and I were preparing to break for lunch when the alarms went off. They had escaped containment. I managed to get to the Tram Station, but she was too slow. I closed the door behind me, and left her for the Rachni." He stared off into the distance, almost unaware that Shepard was even there anymore, "I saw her die. Her head was crushed by one of them right in front of me. I saw it happen."

"What about Lady Benezia. Is she here?"

Olar hesitated, and then nodded. "Yes. She came to find the Rachni Queen. She's still back there. Take my access pass, it will help you find what you seek." He handed Shepard his employee ID card, before he subsided again into silence. That was all they were getting out of him; they turned to go.

Olar's pass got them through the door at the rear of the Mess Hall, leading them into a winding set of passageways, all heavily guarded by now-inactive security drones. Without the pass, those drones certainly would have opened fire on them, but they passed through as easily as if they were executives of Binary Helix. These hallways were deserted – Garrus could barely even pick up thermal signatures – and smelled strongly of disinfectant and sterilizer fluid. Garrus wrinkled his nose in disgust, the odour of the fumes overwhelming. "Whew! Judging by the smell of this place, either this is a lab, or they cleaned up a lot of bodies recently."

Shepard nodded in agreement, "given what Olar said has been going on here, I wouldn't be surprised if it was both." Garrus merely shrugged in response, as the three of them wound their way through a near-endless number of hallways. It created the impression of a labyrinth, of seeking to disorient them as they neared their destination.

At last the hallway opened into a massive antechamber. Row upon row of lab tables, each with a computer and testing area, lined the room, forming outward circles around an enormous glass containment chamber. Contained within was one of the largest creatures Shepard had ever seen: The Rachni Queen. Four powerful, insect-like legs held her carapace-covered body aloft, where two claw-like flails protruded from her underside; deceptively powerful, these whip-like appendages could open and impale an unlucky opponent in the blink of an eye. A beak-like jaw clicked nervously, as four sets of glowing white eyes darted back and forth across the room, scanning the three of them as they walked towards the magnificent creature. A mixture of awe and fascination swept over Shepard, the sheer mystery of such an alien being. The case was spacious, and yet the massive frame of the Rachni Queen filled it nearly to capacity. Shepard could see acid tanks rigged to the top of the cage, ready to end the Queen's existence in a heartbeat; Binary Helix clearly was taking precautions. The bodies of two Asari commandos lay on the floor next to the tank, their shattered armour riddled with gunfire.

Liara and Garrus seemed to share his thoughts. "Goddess, it's…beautiful," Liara remarked as they slowly advanced towards the Queen's containment chamber. "I have read about the Rachni for years, but I never would have imagined…" she seemed lost for words.

Shepard moved to stand next to the tank, his gloved hand touching up against the glass as he examined the Rachni Queen. The creature seemed to pay no attention to him, as it continued to flail its appendages around gently. A soft hum emanated from the Queen, and Shepard thought he could almost hear the faintest sound of whispering voices, muttering incomprehensible tones all around him. Suddenly, the Queen lashed out at him, pressing its flails firmly against the side of the tank and emitting a guttural roar. Liara's voice shook him out of his mesmerized state, "Shepard, watch out!" He turned to see one of the dead Asari commandos on her feet, shuffling towards him with her eyes shut and her feet dragging across the ground. Shepard drew his shotgun, backing away as the Asari continued her endless dreary walk towards the tank. She slid around, as her back firmly planted itself on the tank's wall.

The dead Asari's eyes shot open, their pupils glazing over as the mental connection between the corpse and the Rachni Queen strengthened. The body spoke, its voice hesitant and quiet. "This one…serves…as our voice. We cannot sing to you, not in these…low spaces. Your musics are…colourless."

"Musics," Garrus asked, "what is she talking about?"

The Asari answered in a disembodied voice. "Your way of communicating is strange, flat. It does not colour the air. When we speak…one moves all. We…are the mother. We sing for those…left…behind. The children you thought silenced. We…are Rachni."

"How are you speaking through her," Shepard asked.

"Our kind…sing through touchings of thought. We pluck the strings, and the other understands. She is…weak to urging. She has colours…we have no names for, but she is…ending. Her music is bittersweet; it is…beautiful." The Asari's tone grew more rasped and strained, as if the Rachni Queen was exerting every ounce of willpower to keep this dying Asari speaking. "The children we birthed…were stolen from us…before they could learn to sing. They are…lost…to the silence. Please, end their suffering; they cannot be saved. They will only cause harm as they are."

So the Rachni they had fought weren't doing so under the Queen's direction. "I don't understand. Why are your children killing people?"

The Asari's voice returned, stronger and filled with anger. "These needle-men, they stole the eggs from us. They sought to turn our children…into beasts of war, claws with no song of their own. Our elders are…comfortable with silence, but children…know only fear if no one sings to them. Fear has shattered their minds. The songs have left them." The disembodied eyes focused intensely on Shepard, seeming to bore into his soul. "What song will you sing? Will you release us, or let us fade once more? You have the power to free us, or return us to the silence of memory."

It was an audacious question, even if it was true. Shepard could easily release the acid tanks inside the chamber, instantly killing the Rachni Queen and ending their threat to Citadel Space forever. Though not as versed in the history as Liara was, he was aware of the threat they had posed to the Council races some 1,200 years ago, after a dormant relay into their system was opened. It had taken the uplifting of the Krogan to crush the Rachni, and they had been presumed extinct in the process. Still, he had to know whether it would be the same this time. "The last time you interacted with the Council races, the war nearly ended in genocide. How do I know that's not going to happen again if I release you?"

"We do not know…what happened during the war. We only heard discordance, songs the colour of…oily shadows. We were only an egg, hearing our mothers cry out in our dreams. A tone from space hushed one note after another. It forced the singers to resonate…with its own…soured note. Then we awoke, in this place…the last echo from the silence…of the planet of voices. We…would seek a hidden place…to teach our children harmony. If they understand…perhaps we would return."

"Goddess…you can't kill her, Shepard. The Rachni deserve a second chance, an opportunity to right those wrongs."

"I agree," Garrus concurred, "we have no right to kill her."

Shepard nodded, activating the console that would unlock the Rachni Queen's cage. "I won't kill you. Go, be free."

The disembodied voice of the now-dead Asari began to slip away. "Thank you. We…will…sing of you…when we are free." The tank rotated upwards, disappearing from their view except from the bottom. He could hear the door above them open, and saw one last glimpse of the Rachni Queen, before she sprang upwards and disappeared from view. Her possession by the Rachni Queen finished, the body of the Asari commando collapsed in a heap at Shepard's feet.

Shepard turned back to face Liara and Garrus. "Now that that's done with, we need to find Matriarch Benezia."

"Good plan," a new voice behind them said, "too bad none of you will ever make it out of this room." They turned to find Dr. Iallis standing between them and the door, her left fist clenched and pulsing with biotic power as she held a pistol pointed directly at Shepard's chest. "You three have heard more than enough, I imagine. Benezia posted me here just in case you came along, Commander Shepard. Sure enough, you have. I'm here to make sure you don't go any further."

"No, wait," Liara stepped in front of Shepard, panic in her eyes. "You don't understand! I'm her daughter! I'm Liara T'Soni!"

Iallis loaded her pistol, shifting it from Shepard's head to pinpoint itself between Liara's eyes. "I don't think that will make a difference."

Liara's eyes widened, her body froze, unable to move from the shock. She opened her mouth but no sound came out, as she stood transfixed in the path of Iallis's pistol. Shepard reacted instinctively as he watched Iallis's finger close around her pistol trigger. He threw Liara into a biotic stasis, freezing her in place yet causing the shot to bounce harmlessly off of the shield. Shepard lunged at Iallis, grabbing her around the ankles and biotically propelling her into the far wall. She dropped her pistol, yet brought her knee upwards to connect with Shepard's face, throwing him back onto the floor. Shepard kicked wildly back, tripping her and bringing her to the ground as he flipped backwards and onto his feet. However, her biotic throw caught him off guard, and while he was able to block most of it he was still forced backwards into the far wall, where he dropped his own shotgun as he connected with the bulkhead. Iallis retrieved her own sidearm and pointed it directly at Shepard's head. Out of options, he waited to die.

The first shot from Garrus's assault rifle caught Iallis directly in her gun hand, causing her to drop the pistol and recoil in pain. A second shot ripped through her other shoulder, rendering her biotics useless. His third caught her directly in the knee, causing her to fall to the ground as Shepard drew his shotgun. He fired a single blast, the spread hitting Iallis directly in the chest. Her broken body crumpled to the ground.

The stasis field Shepard had projected around Liara ended, and she fell to her knees. When she got up again, her entire frame was shaking, her voice cracked and hushed. "She, she was one of my mother's commandos, and yet she tried to kill me even when I told her who I was." Tears formed in her eyes as she turned to face him, "what is going on, Shepard?"

"I don't know, but we're getting to the bottom of this. Benezia has to be close by." Liara grimaced and nodded, and the three of them continued onward from the lab room further into the labyrinthine corridors of the Rift Station.

They came into a square chamber directly adjacent to that which had held the Rachni Queen. Metal catwalks ran the perimeter of the room, while the centre was filled with equipment and supply crates from Binary Helix. Asari Commandos lined the far walls, their weapons readied and their stance attentive and prepared for combat. The catwalk turned into stairs leading to a raised platform, and at the top, stood Matriarch Benezia T'Soni. Unlike Liara's youthful face, Benezia's Matriarch stage of life had hardened her features into a gracefully-aged shell, with features that looked as if they had been carved from iron. She was dressed entirely in black – a flowing gown that left virtually nothing to the imagination, and a headdress that obscured the crests of her head. Even from a distance of twenty or thirty feet, Shepard could feel biotic power emanating from her, the result of centuries of practice and dedication to the skill.

"You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life, turn it towards happiness…or despair" She spoke without turning to face Shepard, or even acknowledge his presence there. She seemed aloof, powerful, as if the responsibilities of a Matriarch separated her from the world around her. All at once, Shepard understood the impact this had had on Liara. He understood her shyness, her desire to be different from this woman. At last, the Matriarch turned to face him, the full might of her ceremonial and physical power bearing down on him. "I won't be moved by pity, Commander Shepard, no matter who you bring with you to try and stop me." She turned to look at Liara, "what did you tell him, Liara? What secrets of your _joyful_ childhood have you shared with him?"

"What did you expect me to tell him, mother?" Liara's voice was on the verge of breaking, and Shepard could see tears forming again in her eyes, "that you're possessed? That you're insane? That you and Saren sent Geth to kill me, your own daughter?"

There was no compassion in Benezia's eyes, no mercy or remorse. "It does not matter. The three of you are in my way, in Saren's way, and I will destroy you."

Shepard couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You'd kill your own daughter?"

Time seemed to slow as Benezia nodded, as the depth of her malice became horrifyingly clear. "I should have been more firm with her decades ago. It's time to make up for that." She stepped towards them, almost toying with them as the first surges of biotic power began to coalesce around her fingers. "Have you faced an Asari Commando Unit before, Commander Shepard? Few human have; fewer live to talk about it."

Benezia's fist uncurled, and she threw her biotic power at Shepard. He felt his limbs go numb as the stasis field locked around him; he struggled to move, but was powerless against the sheer biotic force that Benezia was capable of throwing at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the doors on the far side of the catwalks open, as a dozen assault rifle-armed Asari commandos moved towards them menacingly fast. Asari commandos were feared across Council Space for their ruthlessness, their biotic prowess, and the efficiency of their attack; Asari lacked the numbers of the Alliance and the Hierarchy, the intel networks of the Salarian Union, or the endurance capacity of the Krogan, but they made up for it in the best training regimens of any of the Citadel races.

The commandos closed on them fast, throwing crates at them from across the room as they advanced. Garrus wasted no time retaliating, and in seconds two commandos had been felled by his sniper rifle. Finally, Shepard broke free of the stasis field and dove into combat. The Asari commandos proved worthy opponents, responding to his biotic attacks with adeptness and skill. Gradually, however, he managed to work his way closer to the commandos, gradually closing the distance as he used a combination of stasis fields and biotic barriers to withstand the barrage of their assault rifles. When he was close enough to the first group, he finished them quickly with his mastery of close-quarters combat. Garrus and Liara dealt with the remaining four commandos, Liara's biotics proving every bit as potent as her mother's.

As the Asari commandos fell, Benezia seemed to weaken; the strength of her resolve began to break. Dropping to one knee, she threw another strong biotic attack at them, this time directly towards Liara. Shepard grabbed Liara and threw both of them out of the way of the blast, tumbling into the corner opposite Garrus. Another wave of commandos entered, this time accompanied by Geth Shock Troopers as well. They made short work of these as well, with Shepard and Liara matching blow for blow the attacks of the Asari, as Garrus used his tech skills to wreak havoc on the Geth. Shepard dodged two thrown grenades as he leapt over a stack of crates in the corner of the catwalk, brought his biotics down hard on a pair of Geth, and then turned to finish the final Asari commando. The escorts finished, Shepard bolted across the room to where Benezia was standing. Though apparently weakened by the loss of her commandos, the Matriarch was still a deadly opponent. He hadn't gotten ten feet from her when she unleashed a stream of biotic power against her, the force of the impact cutting into his armour and throwing him back against the wall. Garrus fired several shots at her, but they bounced harmlessly off of her much-augmented barrier.

As Shepard hauled himself up from the wall, he saw a blue blur stream past him, and he watched in awe and horror as Liara hurled herself at her mother, the full force of her biotics on display as she assaulted Benezia's barrier with everything she had. She fought with blind rage – a potent mix of anger, regret, sorrow, and fear – as she battered away at the Matriarch's defenses. Benezia was unprepared for the onslaught, and she was quickly forced back into the corner of the platform as Liara rained down blow after blow. She narrowly dodged a powerful attack from her mother, and then swerved to avoid Shepard's own thrown biotic attacks as he rejoined the fray. Garrus hung back, adeptly picking off the few remaining Asari and Geth commandos that were staggering into the room. Benezia finally caught Liara with a biotic warp blast, and she was thrown back against the wall as Shepard retaliated in kind, throwing yet another attack at the Asari Matriarch. The attack seemed to be critical, and Shepard saw her reel under the force of the blow, staggering backwards against the railing and falling to the ground, defeated.

Benezia knelt on the floor, as exhaustion from the fight overpowered her biotic abilities. This close to her, Shepard could see that her eyes glowed slightly. "You cannot win," she panted, the strain of the fight showing in the contorted muscles on her face, "Saren is more powerful than you can possibly imagine. He is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear."

Liara and Garrus moved to stand behind him, the former with a look of worry on her face. "The Krogan you sent after Liara were stoppable, your feared commandos were stoppable. Why should I believe you?"

"I will _not_ betray him," Benezia managed through pained gasps for air. "You will…you…will…" Her head shook violently, and all at once her expression changed. The lines of rage in her face softened, the glow disappeared from her eyes, and when she stood up again it was with the regal poise of an Asari Matriarch, not the broken feebleness of a beaten servitor. "You must listen to me. Saren still whispers in my mind; I can fight his compulsions briefly, but the indoctrination is strong."

The change was too sudden to be trusted; even Liara seemed sceptical. "what do you mean, indoctrination?"

"People…are not themselves around Saren. You come to idolize him, worship him, take up his cause as your own. You would do anything for him. I sealed a part of my mind away from his influence, saving it for a moment when I could help undo his planes, but it will not last long."

She definitely wasn't faking this; the fear and worry in her voice spoke volumes to Shepard. "So you could attack us at any point?"

Benezia nodded, "but it would not be my will. I would never bring harm to my own daughter," Shepard heard Liara draw in a breath behind him, "but Saren's demands are powerful."

"Goddess, mother, you were always so strong-willed. How can Saren control you like this?"

"The key is _Sovereign_, his flagship; it is a dreadnought of incredible size and its power is extraordinary. It is unlike any other ship I have ever seen," Shepard was about to ask a question, but Benezia seemed to sense this and turned him down, "the Geth did not build it, commander. The technology is far more advanced than that of any known species. The longer you stay aboard, the more Saren's will seems correct." She swallowed, recalling the horrors she had endured, "you sit at his feet, and you smile as his words pour into you. It is subtle at first – I thought I was strong enough to resist. Instead, I became a willing tool, eager to serve." Her entire body seemed to shudder, "you don't know what it's like to be forced to watch as your hands torture and kill. You try to stop it, but you keep acting, powerless to stop yourself from bowing to Saren's will. I would never have come here of my own accord, nor would I have gone prying into the mind of a creature as majestic as the Rachni Queen."

"Why did he send you here? What did Saren hope to gain from the Queen's mind," Shepard asked.

"The location of the Mu Relay; its position was lost thousands of years ago, when a nearby star went supernova. The shockwave propelled the relay out of its system, but did not damage it. The precise vector and speed were impossible to determine, and the relay was gradually enveloped by the nebula. It is difficult to find a cold object in interstellar space, even more so when it is surrounded by hot dust and radiation."

"And the Rachni found it?"

Benezia nodded, "two thousand years ago, the Rachni inhabited that region of the galaxy; they discovered the Relay. The Rachni can share memories across generations. Queens inherit knowledge from their mothers. I took the location of the Relay from the Queen's mind," Benezia lowered her eyes in shame, but I was not gentle about it."

"Mother, you can still make it right. Give Shepard the information."

Benezia handed a small OSD to Shepard, who quickly put it into one of the compartments on his armor. "I was not myself, but I should have been stronger. Saren wouldn't tell me where the Mu Relay led, but it must be important if I was sent to find it. I transmitted the coordinates to him before you arrived, I-," Benezia's face contorted in pain, as she fell to the ground clutching her head. "You have…to stop me," she exclaimed through ragged breathing, "his teeth are at my ear, his fingers on my spine!" She backed away from Shepard and Liara, pressing her back up against the wall behind her. There was fear in her eyes unlike anything Shepard had ever seen, "you…you should…oh Goddess, you should…"

Liara started to run towards her mother, but Shepard grabbed her around the waist and stopped her, "Mother!" her eyes began to water, "Don't leave me! Fight him!"

Benezia at last let go of her skull, and raised her tear-filled eyes to meet Liara's. "You've always made me proud, Liara." She gasped and fell to the ground as Saren's will broke against her mental defenses with the fury of a thousand spirits. "Commander Shepard, please, you must…you must…" she blinked, and when she opened her eyes again they were glowing an electric blue, "die!"

Shepard reacted instantly, throwing a protective stasis bubble around Liara. He turned and ducked, dodging a blast of Benezia's biotics that sailed over his head to impact on the far wall. He drew his pistol, catching the Matriarch in each of her hands, before unleashing a Biotic Warp on Benezia. She didn't deploy her barrier fast enough, and the force of the blast caught her square in the chest. Benezia fell to the ground, bleeding from multiple wounds. "I…cannot go on. You will have to stop him."

Shepard released the stasis field around Liara, who ran and knelt beside Benezia. "Mother! We have medigel, we can-."

"No," Benezia shook her head, "he is still in my mind. Even now I can feel his will battering away at mine. I am not entirely myself; even if I lived, I never would be again."

"Mother…" Liara's voice broke, though no tears formed in her eyes.

"Good night Little Wing." Benezia's voice grew weaker, as death claimed her. "I will…see you again…with…the dawn."

Liara knelt next to her mother for a long time, saying nothing. Finally, she stood and faced Shepard; there were no tears in her eyes, but her voice was strained and on the verge of breaking when she spoke. "Shepard, let's get out of here."

**SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Noveria, Pax System, Horse Head Nebula, 02:40 Local Time**

Shepard sat in his quarters, staring out of the viewing window as the _Normandy_ slowly undocked from Port Hanshan. They needed to put distance between themselves and this place, and Joker hadn't hesitated to undock the frigate from the bureaucratic grip of the Noveria Development Corporation; he had remarked that he wasn't sure which was worse, the cold of the corporations – "one freezes your balls off, and the other sells them out from under you". No one on board the ship had said a word, yet everyone knew what had happened: Shepard had been forced to kill Liara's mother in front of her. Everywhere he walked, Shepard got sympathetic looks from the crew – an understanding nod from Adams, an offer of sympathy from Kaidan. He had debriefed the Council, all of whom had expressed surprise at the survival of the Rachni. Councillor Sparatus had voiced his displeasure at Shepard's decision to free the Queen, but Tevos and Valern had seemed sympathetic to his refusal to take the responsibility for xenocide onto his own shoulders. He wasn't particularly concerned about the reactions of the Council to his decisions.

That was not true for his concern for Liara. She had hardly said a word since her mother's death, offering only a mumbled insistence that she needed to rest when they returned to the _Normandy_. She had betrayed no hint of sadness or grief, apart from her silence, and had held back tears the entire time. It had been more than two hours since they had gotten back, and she was still there.

He cared about her, more than he had realized before they had arrived on Noveria. She was so paradoxical – vulnerable, shy, inexperienced, young, naïve, and yet intelligent, beautiful, deadly, sympathetic to what he had endured on Akuze and Eden Prime, and understanding of the turmoil raging in his mind. Daily, she occupied more and more of his thoughts; where before it had been sporadic, now every time he closed his eyes he found her staring back at him. Every time she looked at him, emotions and feelings that he had not felt in over six years came flooding back to him. To see the sorrow in her eyes that she refused to express had tormented him, and he found himself feeling the urge to comfort her, to hold her in his arms and quiet the raging emotions surely raging through her heart right now.

Shepard walked out of his cabin and across the Mess Hall. The ship was quiet; virtually everyone on the Crew Deck was asleep, as a skeleton crew tended to the _Normandy_'s computer systems on the CIC and the engine plant in the cargo bay. Garrus had been overcome by exhaustion as soon as they reached the Mess Hall, and still slept where he had fallen – squarely on the Mess Hall table, snoring loud enough that the Krogan on Tuchunka could probably hear him. Chakwas had retired to her pod, which gave Shepard unfettered access to the med bay and labs. He entered cautiously, wary of waking anyone or of disturbing Liara unnecessarily.

He entered the lab, where she sat on the edge of her cot. She looked up when he entered, her eyes slightly reddened from tears that had flowed earlier. "Shepard," she began, "I imagine you want to check up on me, after what happened at the Rift Station." He nodded, "Benezia deserved what happened to her. She was once a wonderful woman, but she was twisted and destroyed by Saren. I prefer to remember her for who she was, not who she died as."

Shepard took a step towards her, calmly leaning against the desk next to her cot. "That seems a little cold, Liara. Are you sure you're ok?"

The mask broke, her composure crumbled as she slowly shook her head in tiny vibrations back and forth. All at once, tears began to flow freely, the sobs returned in earnest. Without hesitating, Shepard reached out and drew her close, his hand moving reassuringly to her back as he pressed her against him. "It's ok, Liara." She gripped onto the front of his uniform tightly, as her tears flowed down against his shirt, "let it out." She shook in his arms, sobbing freely.

"I'm sorry Shepard," she managed through the sobs. "I never thought that my mother would die…like this." His hands moved to the back of her neck, stroking the oddly-shaped folds of her head-crest as they formed along the base of her skull. "She was always so powerful, so wise, but to see her like that, so twisted and corrupted, oh Goddess…" the sobs started again, as she pressed herself against Shepard, seeking comfort and solace in his arms. "She would have killed me, she tried to kill me. Her own daughter!" She grasped against his chest tighter than before, bringing sharp jabs of pain to Shepard's skin. "It-, it had to happen. She had become corrupted by Saren. She was so strong-willed, yet she was bent before him as if she were nothing."

"Liara," Shepard spoke softly as he ran his hand over her shoulders, pulling her closer to him as her sobs continued. "You can't shield yourself from that kind of grief. She was corrupted by Saren, she tried to kill us, but she was still your mother. You can't pretend that she meant nothing to you."

"I know that, Shepard, but to see her like that…Goddess, it was unbearable." Her sobs subsided a little, as she began to regain her composure. "Why did you trap me Shepard? Why did you throw the stasis field around me?"

He had known she would ask about this. Slowly, deliberately, the words found their way out of his mouth. "I didn't want you to even have to consider firing that shot." He pushed her back from him slightly, so that he was looking directly into her azure eyes. "There are things no child should ever do to their parent. Losing them to begin with hurts enough."

Those liquid eyes looked at him earnestly through the still-forming tears, "did you ever-?"

He nodded, "Yes, I did." He sighed loudly, trying to form the words that were now ebbing sluggishly from him. "My father…I haven't spoken to him in six years." Her eyes widened, "he didn't approve of me joining the N7 Program – thought it would lead to me 'fraternizing with the Asari, Turians, Salarians, and the other filth of the galaxy', as he put it; his brother was killed in the First Contact War, and his attitude towards non-humans shows it. We had an argument about it, it came to blows." Shepard closed his eyes, resting his fingers on the edges of his temples as he remembered the physical and emotional pain of that day. "I hurt him, Liara. I broke his arm and his collarbone. We've barely spoken since, and I will live with that knowledge for the rest of my life."

Liara looked down at the floor, shifting her weight awkwardly between her feet. "I never knew my father, Shepard." Now it was his turn to stare. "I only know that it was another Asari, and that she and Benezia had gone their separate ways well before I was born."

"Did your mother ever tell you who they were?"

Liara shook her head. "Among my people, unions with other Asari are looked down upon. Genetically, nothing is gained from the union, and Asari like me are referred to in whispers as 'Purebloods', though nobody would call someone that openly." She looked at him with tear-filled eyes, "I have nobody left, Shepard. For most of my life my mother was the only person I knew, and now she too is dead, corrupted by Saren."

"Liara, I never knew. I'm so sorry. Why did she never tell you?"

"I don't know, Shepard. Perhaps the separation did not go smoothly, perhaps my mother was ashamed to have raised a pureblood daughter," the tears began to return "perhaps she-,"

Shepard cut her off. "Liara, stop beating yourself up. Benezia did what she did for her own reasons, not because of anything you did. The stigma is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard; you're a credit to the Asari, and who your father was doesn't change that." He looked at her, his intense blue eyes matching her gaze. "I care about you, Liara. I don't want you destroying yourself over this."

Liara seemed to freeze at the sound of those words. He hadn't meant to say them, but they had streamed forth unbidden. Her reddened eyes were suddenly alert, beaming with energy as she stood perfectly still. Her breathing almost stopped, and Shepard could only faintly detect the barely-audible sound of her breath. "That…means a lot to me Shepard." She seemed ready, yet hesitant, to ask something, and Shepard motioned for her to speak. "Shepard, is there something between us? I first thought that it was simply my interest in your connection to the Protheans, but is there something more than that?"

Shepard looked at her – the shy, yet intelligent and beautiful archaeologist he had rescued on Therum, the shipmate he had nurtured at Pinnacle Station, the friend who had helped him through the brutal revisiting of Akuze, and the loyal companion who had followed him into the unknown on Noveria, even if it meant the possibility of confronting or killing her own mother. He knew the answer immediately; he had always known the answer. "Yes, there is something more than that. There is something between us."

That brightened her; the playful spark returned to the Asari's eyes, and her entire face seemed to light up where minutes ago it had been darkened by tears and crying. "I…Goddess, I had thought there might be. Even when you first told me about your encounter with the Beacon, I was drawn to you. I can't get the thought of you out of my head Shepard." She embraced him tightly, clinging to him even more earnestly than she had in grief, yet now in joy. Yet there was a hint of reservation in her embrace, a sense that she was holding back. "I'm nervous, Shepard. I have never felt this way about anyone before, we are from two different species, two different backgrounds. Why do we feel this way about each other? It doesn't make sense."

"They never do," Shepard whispered so quietly that Liara had to strain to hear them. "We don't plan for these things to happen; they just happen, and sometimes we can't even explain why."

She relaxed slightly, but pulled out of his embrace so that he could see her shining azure eyes staring intently into his own. "I suppose so. It's just that this is all very new and unknown to me. I need time to come to grips with it all. I hope you understand."

Shepard nodded, "I do, Liara. I haven't felt this way in a very long time either. Take your time, I'm a patient man."

He moved to go, keying open the door to Liara's lab and walking back through the Med Bay. He was about to pass the threshold into the Mess Hall when her voice stopped him. "And Shepard?" He turned to face her, "thank-you for being there for me when…" her voice trailed off. He nodded. There was no need for words; her eyes and his said everything that needed to be said.

The steps back to his cabin seemed to take an eternity. At long last, he had said it. That confession had been brewing in the back of his mind for weeks, yet he had found himself hesitant to say it. So much was at stake around them – the fate of billions seemed to be riding on his every assessment, on every split-second decision made in the heat of combat. There was no time for something like this, not with galactic peace balancing on the edge of a knife. But it was as if he could no longer help himself; her eyes followed his dreams wherever they went, and more and more he felt himself drawn to her, both physically and emotionally. And the feeling was mutual. His heart had nearly stopped beating in the moments after she had asked him whether he had feelings for her; time had seemed to slow, his hearing dimmed until he could hear only the sound of their breathing. The joy in her eyes had been an elation to behold – to see those azure eyes glowing so magnificently magnified her considerable loveliness. She said she needed time, and with their feelings at least confirmed he could give her that.

Shepard collapsed into his bed, so exhausted that he didn't even bother removing his boots as his body cried out for rest. It had been a long night of sorrow and solace, possibly the longest of Liara's life, and he could feel the strain; the bruise from a precision shot by an Asari Commando dug into his back as sleep took him. He slept a dreamless sleep – no azure eyes watched him this time – yet when he finally awoke thirteen hours later, fully rested and rejuvenated, he did so with a thought in his mind and an emotion in his heart, one he could have sworn he would never feel again.

Love.

**Next Week - Chapter 8: The Wolves of Tartarus**

**Updating may slow somewhat, as I am preparing to move 2,800km across the country to go back to University. Ideally the effect of this will be minimal.  
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	9. Chapter 8: The Wolves of Tartarus

**Apologies for the recent slowdown - the process of moving back across the country for university consumed quite a bit of time, but now with classes started and the move finished I'll have more time for writing. The draft is at 116,000 words and midway through Chapter Eleven.  
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**This chapter didn't figure in my initial plans for _Salvation_, but I had the feeling that some separation was needed between the events of what eventually became chapters 7 and 9. Hopefully you'll all enjoy this slight change of pace.  
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_**Chapter 8: The Wolves of Tartarus**_

_"A Dark time is coming, humanity will be tested. And while we may not know who is doing the testing or why, we must meet the challenge, as we met all others. We will succeed, because to do anything else would be inhuman. There is no magic – only technology. Tools that we can master; tools we must master. Not just to survive, but for the betterment and supremacy of humanity. Humanity needs an army, a Cerberus to guard the boat of Charon, one that will allow us to take our rightful place on the stars. This is my manifesto; I hope you will join my cause." – Anonymous Extranet Post, 2158CE_

**SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Sparta System - Artemis Tau Cluster**

Without emitting so much as a sound, the _Normandy_ dropped out of FTL speeds and into the cluttered expanse of the Sparta System. Sparta was a medium-sized note on the starcharts, consisting of five planets and two asteroid belts: Alsages – a small outer ice planet that had been the sight of a pitched battle between Batarian pirates and N7 Marines in the mid-2160s, Altaaya – a dead world that once possessed an atmosphere capable of supporting life, long since burned away by some cataclysm; Ontamalca – a huge gas giant that caused gravitational distortions across the entire system, Tremanre – a dwarf planet devoid of a magnetic field, and Edolus – a dust-choked planet known as a discharge-port for smugglers, pirates, and fugitives withdrawing from Alliance Space. They were here on the orders of Hackett and Rear Admiral Tané Kahoku, the senior commander of the Sixth Advanced Reconnaissance Regiment.

A platoon of Kahoku's Marines had stumbled across the corpse of Armistan Banes – a gifted researcher working on several highly-classified projects for the Alliance – only to drop out of contact a day later. The Mass Relay monitors on the Citadel had not reported their ship moving through any of the relays, and Alliance tracking confirmed that the ship was still in the vicinity of the Sparta system. The _Normandy_ had been investigating a possible lead on Saren in the Armstrong Cluster, and diverted to Artemis Tau to see what they could find.

Shepard stood in the CIC, fully decked out in his combat gear. Ashley and Wrex were prepping their gear and the Mako in the cargo hold; he wanted an Alliance presence on this one. At least the system was fairly easy to narrow down; Tremanre, Ontamalca, Altaaya, and Alsages were too hostile for any sort of surface expedition, so their best bet was to scavenge across Edolus to try and find Kahoku's marines.

"Take us down to atmospheric levels on Edolus, Joker. Meteor cover is going to be heavy, so bring the shields up to combat levels. See what you can find on the surface that sticks out."

"Aye aye, Commander." He carefully steered them into the upper edges of Edolus's atmosphere, as Tali and Adams fired up their scanning equipment. Due to the gravitational influence of the gas giant Ontamalca, Edolus's surface and upper atmosphere were constantly bombarded by meteor fragments from the asteroid belt, requiring the use of heavy kinetic barriers to prevent ship damage. As he descended to the cargo bay, Shepard could feel the ship rock beneath him as it adjusted to the bombardment of dust and rock that battered against the hull of the frigate, as one particularly violent jolt threw him against the side of the elevator.

"Commander, Tali and I think we've picked up something," Adams's voice came in over the intercom in the cargo bay. "scans have picked up the profile of an M-29 Grizzly, as well as a distress beacon broadcasting over encrypted Alliance frequencies."

"Program the coordinates into the Mako VI and tell Joker to find us a landing zone close to the site," Shepard said as he exited the elevator. Ashley was already clambering into the Mako through the top hatch, as Garrus and two shipboard engineers calibrated the Mako's jets for the jump onto Edolus.

Ashley nodded as Shepard approached. "Skipper, we're almost ready to go. Just give the word!" Chief Williams was a capable soldier, possessed of excellent tactical sensibilities and a keen eye for precision targets. She had initially been skeptical of allowing non-humans to serve on the _Normandy_, even going so far as to be openly hostile towards Liara and Wrex, but seemed to have settled that grudge as amicably as possible. Shepard suspected that her dislike for Liara had something to do with him, but he chose to put the matter aside for the sake of team cohesiveness. Since the training on Pinnacle Station, she seemed to have eased up on her pro-human tendencies, and now easily shared the cargo bay with Wrex, Garrus and Tali.

Wrex walked over to stand beside Shepard, as the two of them prepared to shuffle into the cramped confines of the Mako. "I hear we're looking for a couple of missing Marines. Probably some idiot knocked out their comms and now we have to go in and clean up the mess."

Shepard shook his head, "doubtful. Adams and Tali picked up an encrypted distress signal over Alliance frequencies."

Ashley's head poked up from the interior of the Mako. "Sorry Skipper, but I'm going to have to agree with our resident Krogan on this one. Alliance emergency transmissions would have more identification of the unit than what Adams picked up. Could be anything down there."

"We've found a drop-zone, about five hundred metres out from the source of the signal and just in front of the M-29's signature. Thirty seconds until deployment; you guys may want to, you know, get into the Mako, unless you're up for exploring the creepy uncharted planet commando-style." Joker's biting sarcasm was the only encouragement they need, and all three of them quickly scrambled into the Mako. Ashley took up the gunner's position, while Wrex squeezed himself into the systems engineer's seat (if it could be dignified with the term). Wrex primed the Mako's kinetic barriers, as Adams and Tali began the countdown timer over their comms.

The Mako shot forward out of the _Normandy_'s cargo bay, and Shepard felt the now-familiar sensation of freefall overtake him. Immediately, they could hear the sound of small pellets of rock and meteor impacting off of the barriers of the vehicle. The passage through the debris field bounced them around violently inside the Mako, with Ashley narrowly managing to stay in her seat as the Mako was tossed about by the force of the impact. It was over as quickly as it began, as they descended into the lower reaches of the atmosphere and the deceleration jets began their autofire sequence.

Their scans of Edolus had suggested that it was a strange world, but Shepard didn't fully appreciate just how strange until they had touched down on its surface. The sheer volume of debris and particulates in the air obscured daylight, giving the sky the appearance of being choked with ash. The fierce light of the system's star barely poked through the cloud cover, and where it did it shone through with intense rays of white light. They had touched down on the tip of a large granite plateau that seemed to stretch behind them for miles. The plateau dipped into a small canyon about 200 metres in front of them, before expanding into a low floodplain that stretched several miles ahead of them, possibly a former river basin.

"Commander, you'd better take a look at this!" the urgency in Ashley's voice guided Shepard's gaze to the scene in front of them. The M-29 Grizzly identified by the orbital scans the _Normandy_ had conducted sat in flames directly ahead of them. The entire outer layer of the vehicle's armour was charred and burning, the entire rear turret appeared to have melted into the frame of the Grizzly, and its lone 135mm cannon sloped and slanted to the point of barely being recognizable. The access hatch had been kicked off, and two charred skeletons lay at the foot of the burning wreck. "Good Lord," Ashley muttered under her breath as the Mako slowly crept past the Grizzly's corpse. "What the hell happened here?"

"I've seen those scar patterns before on Tuchunka. I think I know what we're dealing with here. Keep that gun alert, Williams." Ashley simply nodded at Wrex's observation.

Five hundred metres in front of them the ground opened up into a flat plain between the two plateaus. It was in the centre of this plain that they found the distress beacon, rotating furiously as it broadcast its signal across Alliance communications channels. Another burning Grizzly littered the ground beside it, while half a dozen mutilated corpses were scattered among the debris. Through the magnified viewer, Shepard could faintly make out the markings of Alliance marines on one of the bodies, barely recognizable through the burnt armour. Cautiously, they moved closer to the distress beacon, taking care to avoid the corpses strewn about the valley.

"My God, they're all dead. All of them," Ashley exclaimed as they got to within twenty metres of the beacon. "But what killed them?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Wrex observed. Shepard was about to nod when the ground beneath them shook furiously, throwing Wrex off of his seat with a roar of pain and annoyance. The controls of the Mako were temporarily scrambled, as the VI struggled to recalibrate its balance vectors. Wrex struggled to his feet, his bulky thousand-pound frame straining to move about in the confines of the Mako. "That wasn't an ordinary tremor, Shepard. I haven't felt something like that since my turn at the Rite."

The tremor returned, more violently this time, as if it was getting closer to them. It was accompanied by the muffled sound of a shriek of rage and arrival. In a split second, Shepard knew exatly what was causing this. "We need to get the hell out of here." He gunned the throttle on the Mako into reverse, shooting the tank back towards the plateau they had landed on. "Drive, drive, drive, drive, drive, dri-,"

The ground where they had been parked only seconds ago erupted as the enormous frame of a Thresher Maw burst from the ground in front of them. Fully-grown, this one was enormous, perhaps fifty percent larger than the ones Shepard had fought on Akuze. The Mako was thrown skyward by the force of the blast through the floodplain, and Shepard momentarily lost his sense of direction and gravity completely, before the Mako's stabilizing thruster VI kicked in and restored balance to the vehicle. Shepard threw the throttle left as hard as he could, and the Mako responded splendidly, shooting them out of the path of a burst of acid that moments before had been heading directly for them. The Maw, sensing that its prey had gotten away, roared in defiance before plunging itself back into the ground, leaving virtually no trace that it had been there in the first place.

"I haven't seen one of those things in nearly 700 years," Wrex shouted over the din as the Maw withdrew into its subterranean lair.

Ashley gripped the handle of the gunning chair tightly, her knuckles bone-white as she seemed to hang on for dear life. "Skipper, we need to get back to the _Normandy_; there's no way we can take that thing on in just a Mako."

Shepard shook his head defiantly. "We have to shut off that distress beacon, and if we don't someone else will get drawn here and killed by that Thresher Maw." He turned to Wrex, who was nodding in agreement, "you said that you'd fought one of these things on Tuchunka before; how the hell do you kill one?"

"You have to target either the soft flesh on the underside of the neck, or fire directly into the jaws themselves! Williams, get off that turret; I'll handle this." Ashley maneuvered out of the way as Wrex shifted his massive frame into the gunner's seat. "This VI is useless, Shepard. The Krogan have been killing each other for five thousand years without remote assistance." Irritated, he tried to deactivate the targeting VI to no avail, and finally gave up and resigned himself to having to have computer assistance for the fight. "Shepard, drive in circles around the edge of the floodplain; it forces the Thresher to keep coming up to try and find us again, and gives us a clear shot."

Shepard obliged, guiding the Mako around the perimeter of the floodplain as the Thresher Maw searched frantically them, its nearly-blind eyes struggling to adjust to the light above the surface. The Mako deftly avoided two streams of acid as Wrex slowly lined up his first shot. "You have to be absolutely precise in where you hit these things," he glanced over at Shepard, "otherwise you just piss them off." The Mako rolled over a large outcropping or rock in the floodplain, launching itself into the air for a few seconds.

Time seemed to freeze as Wrex took the shot, waiting a fraction of a second longer before firing the Mako's main 155mm cannon. The heavy mass-accelerated slug struck the Thresher Maw directly under its lower jaw, catching it in one of the few places on its serpentine body where the carapace-like body armour was weaker. The creature emitted a bellowing roar of pain, swivelling its wounded head and neck about wildly in a vain effort to locate this new attacker that had dared to inflict pain upon it. The _Normandy_'s Mako was already on the move, furiously kicking up dust in its wake as it sped across the floodplain to try and get another shot at the Thresher Maw. Wrex fired off two shots into the Maw's back carapace; they were designed to lure out the creature rather than harm it, and the shells bounced harmlessly off of the thick plating. Though they failed to inflict harm, the shots got the Thresher's attention, causing it to swivel once more to face them; Wrex was ready for it, and deftly unloaded two rounds directly into the mouth of the massive creature. Blinded by the fierce light of Edolus's sun, its vision dimming under the intense agony the shots of the Mako were putting it through, the Thresher Maw retreated back into the caverns underneath the floodplain, disappearing from view as it sought to find a new opening against this new threat.

Shepard was about to ease up on the throttle, but Wrex cautioned him against it. "If you stop, it'll pick us out and come up right on top of us. Keep moving around, keep it guessing, and whatever you do: don't go in a straight line for very long."

The Mako's movements became frantic and inconsistent, as Shepard tried to throw off the subterranean pursuit of the Maw. When it finally resurfaced, it did so confused and infuriated at the persistence of this foe it could no longer see, but could still sense. Several blasts of acid from its jaws narrowly missed the hull of the Mako, and Shepard felt the intense heat of the corrosive fluid even from within the armoured confines of the driving compartment. Wrex seemed unperturbed as he calmly fired another shot directly into the Thresher Maw's left eye, drawing a guttural bellow of shock and pain from the creature. "We've made it angry! A few more hits should do it!" The Maw burrowed again, throwing itself back underground in a now-vain effort to recover from the trauma inflicted on it, and to once again try to surprise its attackers. As the ground beneath them began to shake once more, Wrex fired at one of the sinkholes forming in the ground, blindly guessing as to where the Thresher was going to emerge.

He guessed right; the blast struck it clearly in the lower jaw as it emerged from the ground about fifty feet in front of them, and Shepard watched – transfixed – as the creature's entire serpentine head seemed to disintegrate on contact with the shell. The Thresher Maw died in that instant, but the force of its entry into the upper world carried it skyward. The entire length of its thick body convulsed violently as its nerve system was overtaken by its death throes. After what seemed an eternity, its movement above ground slowed, and then stopped entirely. The 150-foot long body of the creature stopped writhing, and gravity took its hold on the corpse, driving it down to the floor of the floodplain. The body followed a precarious course, and Shepard began to panic as the massive hulk of the body seemed sway closer and closer to them, its shadow eclipsing the sun as it fell to earth. Overcome by a mix of awe and fear, Shepard froze, unable to tear himself away from watching the spectacle in front of him. He watched helplessly as the Maw's corpse fell towards them, darkening the sky, getting closer…

Ashley reacted instinctively, scrambling past Shepard and throwing herself at the controls. Her gloved hand missed the throttle, but managed to narrowly punch the manual controls for the thrusters. The back jets activated, throwing the rear of the vehicle upwards as the Thresher Maw crashed to the surface, connecting with the front edge of the Mako. The angle was miraculously perfect, and the vehicle flipped around until its top was resting against the massive corpse, slightly inverted but intact. Soon, the stabilizers kicked in, flipping and rolling the Mako back into its upright position.

Breathing heavily, yet still in one piece and firmly strapped into his seat, Shepard glanced around the Mako's compartment. Wrex had collided with one of the instrument panels as the vehicle righted itself against the side of the Thresher Maw, while Ashley knelt half-on the gunner's seat, the rest of her body sprawled behind her. Slowly, emitting an elaborate string of curses, she righted herself and glanced at Shepard. "Skipper…can we please not do that again? That was way too close."

Groaning in pain, Wrex pushed himself up from the instrument panel. "Taking on a fully-grown Thresher Maw in this crappy tank…you've got a quad Shepard. You'd enjoy Tuchunka." Shepard only nodded as he slowly guided the Mako away from the Thresher Maw's enormous limp corpse and towards the planted distress beacon. Twenty metres from the signal, Shepard floored the brakes; his lungs were crying out for air other than the recycled oxygen of the Mako, his body craved space to move about. He kicked open the hatch to the surface of Edolus, Ashley and Wrex following shortly behind him. Though far from being a total loss, the Mako had been seriously damaged in the fight against the Thresher Maw. Acid had splashed onto the entire back of the vehicle, burning away much of the armour and coating the outer layers of polymetallic alloy with a black rust.

"Damn…this thing took a beating," Ashley remarked as they surveyed the damage, "you can feel the heat from the corrosion coming off the plating; we're lucky we didn't burn alive inside."

Wrex nodded in agreement as he moved a hand across the plating, pausing to pinch at some of the corroded dust from the armour. "You humans always value size efficiency over firepower or protection. The Mako can't hold a candle to something like a Krogan Tomkah or a Turian Heliopolis. Williams is right; we're lucky to still be alive after that."

"Garrus, we're going to need serious external repairs on the Mako when we get back to the _Normandy_."

"You got it Shepard. Adams and I will have a working crew ready when you get back. Good hunting down there."

From a distance, Shepard surveyed the huge corpse of the Thresher Maw. He had been conservative in his previous estimate; this one was probably twice the size of the Threshers he had encountered on Akuze. Its gargantuan body had long since ceased its twitching, and its purple acidic blood was now oozing out of several wounds near its jaw-line. The skull was barely recognizable anymore, so intense was the damage wrought by Wrex's precision shooting. He had frozen in fear as the corpse descended towards them, but now that its death throes had passed it didn't look nearly as terrifying as it had when it was erupting from the ground twenty feet from them. It was suddenly very hot under the glare of Edolus's star, and the thin atsmosphere of CO2 and nitrogen was maddeningly fatiguing.

"Commander!" Ashley's voice jolted him out of his temporary daze, "you'd better come take a look at this." Shepard scrambled over to the beacon, where she and Wrex had pried open the circuitry panel. Five mutilated bodies lay around it, two of them burned down to the bones by the acid of the Thresher Maw. Three more were in varying stages of dismemberment, and the emblem of the Sixth Recon Regiment could only barely be made out amidst the charred and blackened armour. The helmet of one of the Marines had burned clean off of his head, and Shepard could see the remnants of his face contorted in agony. Kneeling down in silence, Shepard closed the eyes of the lone soldier, bringing some semblance of peace to his face at last.

When he rose, he glanced at Ashley, who had a look of worry and concern on her face, "what do you have for me?"

"I've had a look inside the circuitry and timescales for the distress beacon. It was activated more than one hundred hours ago, well before Kahoku's marines dropped out of contact."

"There's more to it than that," Wrex noted, "these bodies can't be more than fifty hours old; there's skin left on some of the corpses, and Thresher Maw acid burns clean through a corpse inside of seventy hours. The beacon was going off well before they got here; they didn't activate it."

That didn't sit well with Shepard. The scenario seemed suspicious to him; someone else had to have activated the beacon, unless-, "Wrex, Ashley, scan and see if you can find signs of any bodies not identified as Marines. Perhaps someone else activated the beacon when they were attacked, then died."

Their omnitools scanned across the surface within a twenty-foot radius of the beacon. They found nothing; no traces of genetic material, no blood, no footprints, not even a bone fragment. Yet something didn't sit right with Shepard; had he not walked into an almost identical situation six years ago? It had been a trap, a ploy set by a group that called itself _Cerberus_, according to what Toombs had told him. Could this be the same thing?

"Grab the beacon and bring it with us. If there's anything to know, it will tell us."

**SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Twenty Minutes Later**

"Shepard, when you told me to meet you in the cargo bay with a repair crew, I didn't think you wanted a complete rebuild. Do you have any idea how bad the damage on this thing is?" Garrus's omnitool rapidly scanned the outer plating of the Mako, "outer layer of ablative coating is completely shot; the rear kinetic impulse generators are likely gone as well, and it's a miracle that the jets escaped untouched." Garrus regarded Shepard with disbelief and mock frustration, "do you have any idea how long this is going to take to fix and recalibrate?"

Shepard feigned innocence, "don't blame us; blame the two hundred foot Thresher Maw that decided to attack us. How fast can you have it back up and running?"

"Assuming Adams helps and we can run the engines on a skeleton crew? At least twenty four hours, possibly a little bit longer. I'll get right on it." Garrus glanced at the door leading to the Engine Room, "I don't suppose Tali can help?"

Shepard shook his head, "I have another project for her to work on."

After he had changed back into his shipboard uniform, Shepard met Tali on the other side of the cargo bay. He discharged the largely-intact distress beacon from the makeshift casing they had stored it in. "We found this distress beacon next to the remains of the Marines," Shepard's thoughts went to the seven body bags now secured in the med bay for delivery to the Citadel or Arcturus, "and Ashley and Wrex think there's something suspicious about it, and I agree with them. I want you to strip this beacon down; find out everything you can about it – every part, every function, every advanced or suspicious piece of code, anything that seems out of place."

Tali nodded, "I'll-, I'll try my best, Shepard." Tali had proven herself one of the best engineers Shepard had ever seen – her now-encyclopedic knowledge of the _Normandy_'s engines extended to the dozens of disabled probes, beacons, satellites, and data-bits they had found over the past month. She had already been responsible for finding three Prothean data discs, several fragments of code related to Geth processes and movements, and five audio recordings of the life and teachings of the revered Matriarch Delinga – an influential philosopher from the dawn of the Asari space age.

"I'll help." Wrex emerged from the cargo elevator, his armour now clean of the dust and blood that had coated it on Edolus. "I figure I'm the resident expert on Thresher Maws – seeing as I've killed more of them than anyone else here."

"I'll lend a hand too." Kaidan had been loitering in the corner, surveying the work of the marine detachment as they began the process of cleaning and repairing the Mako. Within minutes, the three of them were hard at work dismantling and tagging the distress beacon. Satisfied with the work started in the cargo bay, Shepard ascended in the elevator back towards the crew deck.

He was greeted by Liara, whose azure eyes were beset with worry, frantically searching over his face for signs of injury or trauma. "Shepard, I was in the lab when you got back, I just heard what happened. Goddess, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Liara, just a bit rattled by it all. It wasn't quite what I was expecting down there. It was all fairly suspicious; Tali, Kaidan and Wrex are currently taking apart the distress beacon we found to try and figure out what exactly happened."

She looked at him thoughtfully, her eyes tracing the lines of worry and concern in his face. "Shepard, you've been running yourself ragged for more than a week now," her lithe hand moved to his shoulder, where she rested it gently against his muscled and powerful frame, "get some sleep, let your mind rest for a while."

He didn't need to be told. Though his whole body had coursed with unholy amounts of adrenaline and eezo as they fought the Thresher Maw on Edolus, the inevitable energy crash had finally caught up with him. He nodded silently, bringing his right hand up to meet hers on his shoulder; he took her hand in his own, softly squeezing it before turning and returning to his quarters. When sleep finally came, a downpour of images filled his head; they were images of Akuze, of Eden Prime, of the Prothean vision he had acquired there, of Liara, of the haunted look in Toombs's eyes when confronted by a man he'd thought long-dead.

He was awoken three hours later by the incessant beeping of his comm unit, indicating a message from one of his crew members. Rolling out of bed, he keyed in the message on his holo-terminal. "Shepard, this is Tali. Wrex and I think we've found something; can you come down and take a look?"

Shepard met them in the cargo bay, which was now a flurry of activity. Garrus and his team of five engineers had stripped the ablative plating off of the Mako, and were now reapplying the electroplating and reinforcing the joints. The kinetic barrier generators had been a total loss, and Garrus and Tali planned to rebuild them from scratch using surplus parts from the Alliance Requisitions Officer stationed in the bowels of the ship. Tali and Wrex had completely dismantled the emitter, with the parts strewn across the floor. "What do you have for me?"

Tali stood up from her work to face him, her three-fingered hands fumbling nervously as she searched for the words. "Well, Wrex, Kaidan and I managed to strip it down to its requisite parts, but we found something odd worked into the hardware and the software; Kaidan's just checking something on the software right now." Shepard raised an eyebrow, inviting her to continue, "it turns out that it wasn't just a distress beacon. There was another part, buried just below the surface, that acted as a sonic resonance emitter – it would send out a massive sound signal underground." She pulled up several scans of the hardware, most of which was too complex for Shepard to understand, "and here's the suspicious part: The trigger mechanism was connected to a proximity timer; it would only go off if it detected above-surface movement within ten metres."

Shepard eyed the device skeptically, "you're saying that the beacon was rigged to send out a signal underground?"

Wrex nodded, "and it gets weirder. Tali and Kaidan ran some fancy tech – nothing I understood – but they managed to reproduce the sonic shockwave in audio form, and it sounds exactly like a Maw Hammer on Tuchunka." Seeing Shepard's blank stare, he shook his head and muttered something indiscernible under his breath, "for those of you who didn't grow up in the most hostile environment known to sapient life, Maw Hammers are used on ceremonial trial grounds to summon a Thresher Maw. They send out a sonic resonance signal underground that draws nearby Threshers to them."

Understanding dawned on Shepard, a look of horror crossing his face as he comprehended the reality of what had transpired down on Edolus. It had been a trap, and they had walked right into it. Rage filled his head – rage at whoever had devised such a cunning and brutal apparatus, and rage at himself for having been stupid enough to walk into it well before seeing it. "I don't suppose there's any chance of finding out who planted it there?"

"Well that's where this thing gets really freaky," Shepard turned to see Kaidan emerging from the elevator, three cups of coffee (one of them dextro) in his hand. "Turns out there may be more links than we thought. Commander, you mentioned at one point that your former corporal down on Ontarom gave you some sort of data disc; would I be able to see it for a second?"

Shepard pulled up his omnitool and began to transfer the files to Kaidan's account. Toombs had eventually found himself locked in the chamber that he, Shepard and Emily had explored underground. The data-mine Emily had planted had remained there undisturbed and unnoticed by his Cerberus captors. When he had finally managed to escape, he had grabbed the data-mine, which had given him the intel necessary to pursue the scientists involved. He had given it to Shepard before he departed for Arcturus, but not before extracting a promise that Shepard would use the information contained on it to bring justice to their fallen friends.

Kaidan's omnitool was already a whirl of activity, as the data poured through his holographic display for rapid analysis. "Uh huh…that's what I thought. Commander, you should take a look at this. On a hunch, I read through the official Alliance reports on Akuze, and they all mentioned a massive seismic signal moments before the Thresher Maws attacked both at the refinery and at New Solitude. This data-mine picked up the frequency of the signal. Look at the comparison between it and the one on Edolus," Kaidan turned his omnitool to Shepard; his heart nearly stopped as he realized what he was seeing in front of him.

They were an exact match; an exact, picture-perfect match.

**Command Room, SSV **_**Normandy**_

The communications array in the very back of the command room sputtered to life, as Shepard connected to the command headquarters of the Sixth Advanced Recon Regiment on Arcturus. Through the chop of hazy communications, Admiral Kahoku's head and upper torso came into view, projected through the hologram so that they were standing at almost equal height. The Admiral looked worried, the stress of having an entire unit under his command simply disappear showed in his ragged appearance. "Shepard, did you manage to find my Marines?"

Shepard nodded, but slowly, taking time to draw the words out. "I found their bodies, Admiral. They were on Edolus out in the Sparta System. They were attacked by a Thresher Maw."

Kahoku's eyes widened; even over the hologram it was possible to discern the shock he was feeling. "A Thresher Maw?! How the hell did that happen? God, they're not stupid enough to have walked into a nest of Thresher Maws. They helped with cleanup on Akuze, they know the signs!" The admiral clenched his right hand into a fist, punching the table in front of him, "dammit, what happened down there?"

"It wasn't a mistake, sir: It was a trap. They were lured there by a planted distress beacon right above the Maw's nest. It was rigged to draw the Maw in if anyone got close to it."

"Jesus, you're saying that someone actually managed to lure out a Thresher Maw?! What the fuck are we dealing with here Shepard?"

"We're not entirely sure, though one of my crew members managed to isolate the seismic signal it sent out; it matched data from a near-identical signal on Akuze six years ago." He leaned in close, shifting his weight to his hands, which gripped the railing in front of the communications array tightly. "We also think we've found our culprits. Have you ever heard of something called _Cerberus_?"

Kahoku shook his head slowly, "I've heard the term, but never with enough context or information to know what the hell it is." He glanced about the room in Arcturus, "I'll do some digging – Alliance Intel, a few of my old contacts. If I find anything, I'll get back to you. Thank-you for your help, Commander Shepard, and good hunting to you." Shepard nodded in silent approval as the comms array went dark, Admiral Kahoku disappearing from view.

Hopefully Kahoku would have something for him. He was beginning to hate this _Cerberus_ group, whoever or whatever they were, with more and more fury and rage. But for now, there was nothing to do but wait.

**Cargo Bay, SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Hawking Eta Cluster – Two days later**

Shepard examined the handiwork of Garrus and the engineering crew, and he had to say that he was impressed. Their near-complete rebuild of the Mako had taken less than thirty hours, and they had made significant improvements over the original Mako design. The two rear kinetic barrier generators – formerly Ariake Total Systemic Mark II components – had been repaired and retrofitted from scrap and surplus found on Arcturus by Tali and Garrus, giving performance comparable to the top-of-the-line Serrice Armali generators used on Asari dreadnoughts and nearly doubling the shield strength of the vehicle. Garrus and Adams had further worked to improve the manual calibration of the main turret, reducing the reload time by forty percent and the recoil by nearly sixty. The armour had been improved too – after a thorough cleaning – to better repel (rather than absorb) potential damage from mass-accelerated weapons. The stabilizer and return jets had also been upgraded; they had separated the circuitry from the integrated drive core, so that even in the event of a power failure the Mako could still propel itself back to the safety of the _Normandy_. He could see Garrus clamped against the side, leaning over into a large working-hole into the interior compartments.

"You know Garrus, when I asked you to repair this, I didn't think this would spiral into an episode of a bad ship-improvement extranet series."

Garrus chuckled, the confinement of the interior dampening and warping the sound. "yeah well, one thing just sort of led to another, and the Turians always did build better ground attack vehicles than your Alliance did, so there's that." He poked his head out of the hatch, lifting his visor to look straight at Shepard. "Your Mako should be much stronger now – more armour, better shields, faster gun, better handling." The Turian leapt off of the vehicle and moved to stand next to Shepard. "Any new leads on Saren?" Shepard shook his head, "dammit! Commander, I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever find him."

Shepard definitely sympathized with that sentiment, "he can't evade us forever. Sooner or later, he'll make a mistake, and we'll be there. You were instrumental in getting the lead on Benezia; it's only a matter of time."

"Well, when we do find him, we ought to make sure he can't cause any more damage…permanently."

Shepard could tell what he meant by that. "That's likely how it will end, but if there's a way to avoid that, I'd prefer to use it."

"But Shepard, Saren's extremely powerful, Geth army and freakishly-powerful dreadnought aside – he's wealthy, has connections to the corporate world, sympathizers within the Turian Hierarchy, contacts and spies across the Council. Someone like that is too dangerous to live; don't you think we should err on the side of pragmatism?" Garrus sighed a sigh that seemed to come from his toes, glancing down at the bulkhead below them, "I'm sorry Shepard. I know that you're much more by-the-book than I am, and I know that I'm not a very good Turian in that sense. It's just that I watched far too many low-level criminals and thugs evade justice because C-SEC decided to show leniency."

Shepard understood Garrus's frustration completely. Earlier in the week, he had recounted to him a particularly gruesome case of organ trafficking he had worked on back at C-SEC. The doctor responsible – who had cloned organs within his subject's bodies and used them as living incubators – had escaped, and Garrus had been left fuming at the bureaucracy of C-SEC that had prevented him from taking the shot that would have killed the madman.

"Garrus, you're a good soldier, and a damn fine Turian, and I understand your desire to bring Saren to justice, but…"

"but what, Shepard?"

"I'd like to try and win this without sacrificing my soul, without sacrificing all of our souls." Garrus eyed Shepard thoughtfully, "we'll get him Garrus; don't worry." Shepard left Garrus to his thoughts, as he headed back up the cargo elevator.

He found Liara in the lab, peering over a lengthy series of notes she had made on the Prothean data discs they had managed to find over the last few weeks. As the door to her room hissed open, she turned towards him. "Shepard, it's good to see you."

"You too Liara." She turned back to face her holo-terminal, and Shepard moved to stand beside her, resting one hand against the wall and the other on the back of her chair, "any luck with the data discs or the data Benezia gave us? Anything on the Conduit or the Mu Relay?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. There are a couple of references to the Mu Relay in the context of the supernova blasting it out of position, but there's even less on the Conduit. It was clearly scientific in nature, but none of the earlier tomes on Prothean science mention it – no location, no project members, no information or descriptions, nothing. It's almost like it was deliberately obscured from the record, like they didn't want us to know that it existed."

"That's better than nothing, I suppose. I don't imagine there's anything on what killed them or caused them to disappear?"

Liara shook her head, "these discs all date to at least three hundred years before all traces of Prothean civilization begin to vanish. I thought for a second that there might be a connection to Ilos, but-,"

"Ilos? What's that?"

"It was a Prothean world situated in the Pangean Expanse on the far side of the galactic core. It's odd, because the few records that have been found suggest that it had an enormous population – several billion or so, but apart from those basic figures there's nothing on industry, or military, or philosophy – three things that there are data records on in abundance at other sites. The route to get to the planet was lost thousands of years ago; hundreds have tried to find it, none have succeeded."

"Kind of like Troy then." Liara's blank stare warned him that he'd moved over into unfamiliar territory, "a mythical city on Earth – supposedly the seat of a great empire, but no one has ever found the ruins." Now that the conversation had started, he had to know more. "Liara, I'm the only other person on the crew who has had any interaction with Prothean devices at all, but I know next to nothing about them. Can you tell me everything you know about them?"

"Certainly, Shepard, but my knowledge is limited; you'd probably be better off searching through Extrapedia or-,"

Shepard raised a hand slightly to cut her off, "I want to learn from you, Liara. I want to hear what _you_ know about the Protheans."

She seemed to blush a little at that, her cheeks darkening to a light purple. "I-, thank-you Shepard. I'll tell you what I can." Her azure eyes bored into his, causing his stomach to flutter somewhat. He shifted uncomfortably; she was so beautiful in this light, and her eyes…

"Commander," Joker's voice cut across his vision and jolted Shepard back to reality, "you've got a priority one message from an Alliance commander waiting for you in the comm. Room. It's heavily encrypted, no indication of who it's from, and it will only activate with a voice cue from you."

Shepard turned to leave, and he was almost out the door when Liara's voice stopped him. "Shepard," she asked, her voice uncertain and hesitant, "what you said to me several days ago when…when Benezia died, when we were back on the _Normandy_…did you mean what you said?"

He turned his head slightly to look at her, and he knew the answer within seconds, "every word." As he left, he could have sworn that he saw a single tear form in her eye.

**Galaxy Map Viewing Area, SSV **_**Normandy**_

"Commander Shepard, this is Rear Admiral Kahoku!" Joker hadn't been kidding when he called the encryption heavy; Shepard had had to subject himself to a voice scan, retina scan, fingerprint scan, and password prompt before the transmission would play for him. Purely audio, Kahoku's voice sounded panicked, as if he had stumbled across something terrifying and dangerous. "I found out who killed my Marines, the one who lured them to the Thresher Maw. Dammit, I hope you get this message! It was Cerberus; they're a pro-human spli-," the message became choppy, as the audio slipped in and out, "-etic experiments…soldier…I've managed to obtain coordinates for one of their primary research bases…they're after me, Shepard. This is probably the last transmission you will receive from me; I don't have much time left. I've uploaded the coordinates to the _Normandy_'s information systems. Finish what I started; make the souls of my marines-…." The audio cut out, and the Galaxy Map swivelled and zoomed in on the Voyager Cluster, a majestic gold and green nebula that from above seemed to mimic the form of a falcon in flight. It zoomed in further, triangulating to the Yangtze System and narrowing in on Binthu, the second planet in the system – a newly-surveyed terrestrial planet with a heavy oxygen of CO2 and Chlorine, identified by the Alliance suveys as "an unpleasant and uninteresting place."

"I've got the coordinates locked in Commander, we can be in orbit over Binthu inside of forty minutes."

"Plot a course Joker." Shepard activated the _Normandy_'s intercom unit, issuing orders as he descended to his cabin and personal locker. "Kaidan, tap into the Alliance secure channels and find anything you can on the keyword 'Cerberus'; I want as much information as possible before we go planetside. "

"I'll have it for you before the drop, commander."

The door to the crew deck hissed open, and Shepard descended the stairs to the rear of the third deck. "Pressly, obtain navigation data from the Alliance survey records and help Tali and Garrus get the Mako calibrated for the jump."

"I'm on it, sir."

He reached his personal cabin, opening the door as he quickly stripped off his shipboard uniform and grabbed his battledress. "Ashley, get the ops reports for Edolus and more recent developments filed with the Fifth Fleet, and alert the Ninth Frontier Shock Regiment. If we get in over our heads down there, I want the full fury of the Alliance behind us."

"You got it, skipper."

"Garrus, Wrex, suit up and grab your weapons and gear. We go planetside to Binthu in an hour."

**HWD47 Binthu – Yangtze System, Voyager Cluster – two hours later**

It was a small facility, barely visible above ground. A single domed building, its durasteel frame reinforced by ablative armour coating, rose above the seemingly endless green-tinged rock and dust of Binthu. Two communications antennae jutted out of the top; seemingly innocuous, scans from both the _Normandy_ and the Mako showed that they concealed highly sophisticated quantum communication mechanisms, designed to maintain constant contact with some other facility. A single recon tower rose next to the facility, where the charred bodies of two Cerberus scouts now smoldered, the handiwork of Garrus's recalibrated main gun and his own precision shooting. If you had not bothered to examine the bodies of the guards, then the facility would have appeared as any other in the Attican Traverse – identical to any of the dozens of hideouts used by pirates, researchers, fugitives, slavers, and others who prowled the Traverse's lawless fringes.

Yet below ground, the facility lived up to the reputation of its clandestine owners. Four separate sets of security doors blocked passage further into the facility, and it took even Garrus close to five minutes to successfully hack the full set. The facility stretched on through a single, seemingly endless hallway. Though there were frequent entrances to other rooms on both sides of them, any attempt to open them ended in failure; even patching the hack through to Tali on the _Normandy_ proved futile. Even stranger, they had not encountered a single solitary human being since they had entered more than ten minutes ago; no scientists, no tech specialists, no soldiers, no civilians, nothing.

"This place give me the creeps," Garrus noted as the three of them continued to work their way down the long hallway. "Props to the architect in the creepy-planning bureau who designed this place; they succeeded admirably."

Wrex nodded in agreement, "this place seems deserted. We haven't seen a single sign of life the whole time we've been here. I'm beginning to wonder whether your admiral even gave you the right coordinates."

Shepard shook his head, "Kaidan and Adams confirmed that the transmission vector of the message he sent us was relayed from Binthu. He has to be here."

At long last, Garrus spotted what seemed to be an end to the long hallway in the scope of his sniper rifle. A lone door stood one hundred metres in front of them, its security indicator set to 'open'. On silent feet, the three commandos moved forward, weapons raised and biotic and tech powers ready.

"Good thing they left the door unlocked; my thermal scans can get into the other side that way." Garrus lowered his sniper as he switched to his custom-tooled visor, taking readings on what lay beyond the door. "The room's definitely a lot larger than this – probably forty feet between each wall. I'm detecting lots of thermal signatures on the other side of the door – probably fifteen to twenty humans from the look of things, plus a few thermal signatures that I don't recognize. And this is going to seem weird, but I'm even getting signatures that match the Rachni we encountered on Noveria."

Wrex clenched his fist and growled menacingly; he had not agreed with Shepard's decision to spare the Rachni Queen – something he made abundantly clear at the time. "What the hell would Rachni be doing in a facility like this one? Shepard, I know you dropped the ball on that decision, but I didn't you'd dropped it _this_ badly."

"Only one way to find out what's going on here," Garrus shot back, "and it involves a lot of gunfire, some biotics, and a giant pile of dead commandos."

They reached the door at the far end of the hallway, taking up positions on either side of it. Shepard stood next to Garrus, as the three of them planned their tactical approach to the room inside. "Garrus, take point and neutralize as many as you can from long range – assume hostiles, staff are expendable. Wrex, you and I'll cut across different sides and draw their fire. If we're lucky, we'll whittle them down into small-enough groups to take on individually." Wrex and Garrus simply nodded, before the Krogan battlemaster punched the panel that opened the door. Garrus went in first, his sniper ready to pierce the shields or armour of whoever was on the other side. Wrex and Shepard burst into the room from behind him, prepared to cycle to opposite corners of the room.

There was just one problem: There were no humans in the room.

Where three minutes earlier there had been a multitude of thermal signatures inside the room, it too was now deserted. There were signs of activity – open holo-terminals, active genetics testing, visual and biological simulations, there just weren't any scientists. The room was as large as Garrus had predicted it was – nearly forty feet by forty feet, with vaulted twenty-foot ceilings that made the room seem far vaster than it actually was. Two doors on either side-wall led away to other facilities, while at the back a set of narrow stairs led down into another chamber of an unknown purpose. A rack of weapons – mostly assault rifles and shotguns – lined the far wall, with several of the holsters emptied of thermal clips and guns. Yet it was the centre that had the truly fascinating pieces of equipment. Three framed fifteen-foot cubic boxes sat in the middle of the room, each generating a humming blue forcefield that served both to contain their subjects and to obscure them from view.

Wrex silently counted the ordnance at the back of the room, shaking his head either in disbelief or in knowing realization. "Less-than-standard compliment of weapons; we're not alone."

"Agreed Wrex. Shepard, I'm picking up semblances of thermal signatures – footprints, handprints. They're fewer than five minutes old. Whoever was here can't have been long gone."

An infuriated hiss drew Shepard's attention back to the central containment chambers; it was a sound he had heard before, and a sinking feeling in his stomach told him exactly where from. Cautiously, he moved closer to the middle containment chamber, his shotgun drawn and loaded in case something unexpected happened. He placed his right hand on the forcefield, struggling to peer through the blue haze that separated him from whatever was inside the container. He saw nothing, heard nothing, and then something moved within the containment field, something small and serpentine against the floor of the chamber. With a hellish shriek, one of the things on the inside leapt at him, colliding with the containment field but causing him to recoil in shock. The telltale neon-blue mandibles threw themselves against the containment field, as Shepard found himself face to face with a miniature Thresher Maw. Less than five feet long, its spinal rows of serrated teeth were not yet fully developed, but Shepard could feel the heat of the corrosion as it sprayed small gusts of acid against the walls of its chamber.

"Jesus Christ," he muttered under his breath, "what the hell were they doing in here?"

"Shepard, we've got Rachni over here." He turned to see Wrex examining the right-side containment field, where five fully-grown Rachni prowled the border of the forcefield. "Not sure where they came from, but my guess is Noveria," he glanced at Shepard, a look of '_I told you so'_ on his face, "looks like that's already come back to bite us in the ass. Big surprise."

"Over here, there's something else in this other containment field; I'm not quite sure what though." Garrus motioned to them to come closer, and he was right; the things on the other side of the forcefield were unlike anything Shepard had ever seen before. At first glance, they appeared human, or even like the Geth Husks, but these were different. They appeared fully humanoid, their swamp-green pigmented skin stretched taut over their thin bone structure. Their faces were gaunt, sickeningly hollow as sunken white eyes glared back at them, rows of sharpened and pointed teeth bared in a fit of primal anger. It was the hands that really freaked Shepard out; rather than fingers, they ended in enormous bone-claws, probably strong enough to tear through an unarmoured spine in a single lunge. There were ten of them altogether in the chamber, three of them staring intently at Shepard, Garrus and Wrex in an unsettlingly similar manner to a predator staring at its prey.

"What the hell are these things," Garrus asked with a mix of horror, disgust, and awe.

"I'm not sure; I've never seen anything quite like it." Shepard stood upright and backed away, "I'd say that they were Husks of some sort, but there's no cybernetics; they're pure biology."

"As long as they still die when you shoot 'em, they can be whatever the hell they'd like."

"We can worry about these things later. For now, we need to find Admiral Kahoku and-, GET DOWN!"

Shepard's thoughts were cut off by the sound of a foreign weapon being loaded, and he instinctively ducked behind cover as the first sniper shots sailed over the spot where his head had just been. Within seconds, the room was filled with gunfire, as Cerberus commandos emerged from every conceivable entrance into the main chamber. They were very well armed, relying on Raptor automatic sniper rifles and assault rifles unlike any Shepard had ever seen before. He raised his head slightly to get a better glimpse of the battlefield, and was forced to duck again as precision shots narrowly whizzed by his head. Garrus managed to get off two shots with his rifle before he too was forced to go prone, his shields fried by the modded rounds of their opponents.

"These guys are well armed," he shouted over the din of rifle-fire, "and we're probably outnumbered ten to one. Shepard, we have to get the hell out of here, or we're done for!"

Shepard shook his head, "not gonna happen; we have to find Kahoku. Split up, see if we can draw their fire!"

Wrex jumped from cover, throwing a lift field directly at a standing group of snipers, one of whom managed to twist out of the way. The other three weren't so lucky, and quickly found themselves suspended in the air, helpless as his modded shotgun rounds tore through their shields and the flexible, yet light and comparatively weak armour that they were wearing. Yet for every soldier they felled, three more took their place, and soon they found themselves pushed back to a narrow strip of cover five metres back from the containment fields, relying largely on the poor positioning of their attackers to survive against the onslaught. Even then, they were losing their advantage fast; new soldiers, all equipped in heavy armour that positively glowed with power, were closing fast, flanking them rapidly from the left side and forcing Garrus and Shepard to expend several of their rounds simply to stave off the inevitable.

"I don't suppose you've got any better ideas than 'wait here until we die', do you Shepard?"

He glanced about the room, and to his dismay found very little that could help them. Positionally, they were at a severe disadvantage; they were surrounded from two sides, with the third rapidly closing in, they were at the lowest point of the room, and the heavy weapons that might tip the balance in their favour were twenty metres across the room, with a dozen commandos between them. His mind raced feverishly; there had to be something that could help them. And then he spotted it – a lone control panel against the far wall, marked as the controls to the containment fields. Inspiration came to him in a heartbeat, and he suddenly knew exactly what they had to do.

"Just one, but it's risky, and probably completely crazy!"

Garrus seemed to know what he was thinking, glancing at the switches as he raised his assault rifle to down two more enemies. "No. No, you have got to be fucking kidding me! You are completely insane Shepard. Do you have any idea how _mental_ that plan is?" He peered over cover again, firing a round clear into the head of another Cerberus soldier before retaliatory fire forced him back down. "We have no idea what happens if you release those…_things_. They could turn on us, for all we know!"

Wrex stood wholesale in the midst of the combat, his biotic barrier absorbing incredible amounts of punishment as he blasted away at the Cerberus soldiers with his shotgun. "Vakarian, unless you've got any better ideas, we're going for it."

Realizing defeat when he saw it, Garrus resigned himself to snapping another shot directly between another commando's eyes. "Fine, but if this backfires, I am going to kick your ass when we get to hell!"

"Looking forward to it! Garrus, Wrex, give me some covering fire!" Shepard leapt out of cover as his two squadmates poured fire at the rapidly-advancing commandos. He felt assault rifle and pistol shots tear into his shields, degrading their power to below the 50% mark. He vainly returned fire, but the distance proved too great for his shotgun to inflict any substantial damage. He rolled back into cover, arching his back against the smooth metal as he peered over to try and get a sense of the situation. Garrus had found a good sniper perch near the back of the room, ducking behind an L-shaped stack of crates that protected him both from the commandos directly in front of them, as well as from those trying to flank to the side to cut him off. To his left, Wrex seemed to be doing fine, as he exchanged a mix of biotic attacks and gunfire with five Cerberus soldiers who had tried to surround him; two bodies at his feet were a testament to how successful they had been. Shepard saw one soldier coming perilously close to flanking Garrus, and he quickly dispatched him with a biotic throw that sent him slamming into the far wall; even from across the room, he could hear the sound of bones breaking. The commando collapsed to the floor, struggling to get up as his shoulder gave out under him, before Garrus calmly finished the job with a well-placed sniper round. Sensing that his companions were holding their own, Shepard rolled out of cover again, sprinting into the far corner of the room, where he would at least have some protection from enemies on the left side of the room, thanks to a large outcropping of rock that jutted out awkwardly into the room. The concentrated fire of a dozen Cerberus operatives on him, he felt his shields drop to their 20% warning zone, as his omnitool established a link with the master control unit. He felt his hand connect – satisfyingly – with the button that deactivated the containment fields, watched with a mix of satisfaction and interested horror as the shimmering blue walls flickered, and then died.

All hell broke loose, as the reaction of the Cerberus soldiers ranged from panic to horror. Within seconds, one of the infant Thresher Maws had leapt at a large group of commandos, impaling one firmly on its mandibles as a second Maw hurled itself at another group, scattering them and stopping their concentrated bursts of fire; isolated and out of position, they were easy targets for Garrus and Wrex, who dispatched them with ease. Two soldiers fell screaming as a fully-grown Rachni warrior impaled them on its flail-like appendages, as a remaining column of soldiers poured gunfire into another advancing Rachni warrior. It struggled to move forward, slowing under the sheer onslaught of bullets piercing its thick carapace-like armour. It collapsed to the ground, defeated and broken, but not before it was able to spit a final gout of acid at its killers. The corrosive liquid struck three of them squarely in the chest, and Shepard turned away as he heard the screams of men dying in utter agony, their skin boiling on the inside of their armour. Yet the most gruesome deaths were reserved for those who had been unfortunate enough to be standing near the third containment field. The zombie-like creatures shambled towards them, seemingly unaware of the cascades of gunfire ripping into their flesh. One of the creatures fell to a flurry polonium-enhanced rounds, only to have another three take its place. From his vantage point, Shepard could see the fear in the eyes of the first commando as the shuffling body approached him. He dropped his gun, paralyzed by fear and the adrenaline shock, as he backed away into his comrades. The creature reached forward, piercing through his armour and penetrating flesh with its razor-sharp talons. The vicious claws lodged themselves deep into the man's shoulder blades, and Shepard heard the distinct and sickening crunch as they pierced the bone themselves, drawing a visceral scream from the unlucky commando. The creature moved its face closer to his, and opened its mouth to eject a burning and smouldering substance onto his face. From where Shepard was standing, it looked as if the soldier's skin itself was boiling off; the soldier collapsed in agony, clutching at his burning face as he screamed and screamed, before falling silent as he collapsed in a smouldering heap. Shepard turned away as the horde advanced on the remaining Cerberus commandos, too horrified to watch as they too suffered the same fate. These men were his enemies, guilty of horrific experiments, terrorism, extortion, and possibly linked to the very men who had massacred his own unit on Akuze, but no one deserved to die like that.

"Finish them, Garrus," he ordered over his tac-comm, "make it quick." The Turian nodded silently, scoping and dropping virtually everything that remained; the zombie-like creatures were quite vulnerable to headshots, and seemed to count on their opponents being too cornered and too terrified to get off accurate shots. Wrex finished the last of the Rachni, as Shepard suspended the infant Thresher Maw in the air above him with his left hand, unloading shot after shot from his pistol with his right. These Maws were less than half the size of the one he had killed on Akuze, and his biotic power had only grown since that day. The Maw writhed in agony, yet was helpless against the shredder rounds ejected by Shepard's weapon; at last, the Thresher ceased its movement, and Shepard led it collapse to the ground.

Garrus holstered his sniper as he walked over to inspect the pile of human and creature bodies. "These things are vicious; here's hoping we never have to fight one of _those_ again."

Wrex nodded in agreement, "just keep your distance from them and they go down fast. For a sniper like you, that shouldn't be a problem. Shepard and I, on the other hand…"

Garrus stooped down and flipped one of the bodies upright, "Shepard, this guy's still alive."

As Shepard found out as he approached, 'alive' was a generous term, and it certainly didn't look like it would stay that way for long. The man's left shoulder was barely hanging by a thread, and the acidic bile from the creature at his feet continued to eat away at the armour on his chest and torso. His entire lower jaw was horribly burned, and it seemed to take every bit of resolve simply to keep breathing.

The man clearly didn't have long left, but Shepard needed answers. "Can you hear me?" He saw the slightest twitch of the man's jaw, then a slow nod, accompanied by a grunt of agony. "Did you do this, did you trap these Thresher Maws and Rachni?" The man nodded again. "Why?"

When the dying soldier spoke, it was not with the commanding authority of a hardened biotic commando, but the shaky rasps of a dying man. "To…protect us, to protect you," he gestured weakly at the corpses of the Rachni and the Thresher Maw, "we would have…used their genetics to…improve," his next words were drowned out in a fit of coughing, "Charon…must be guarded…there must always be…a Cerberus." The man's eyes glassed over in pain, as he began to hack up blood.

Shepard rested the man's head against the cold metal floor, and drew his pistol. "I'll make this quick." The man nodded, and through the gargles of blood he managed two words: thank-you. Shepard turned away and pulled the trigger, putting a round directly between his eyes. The pained rasping stopped, and the eyes went blank at last. His work done, he turned back to Garrus and Wrex, "come on, we have to find Admiral Kahoku."

Slowly, the three of them passed through the unlocked door on the far side of the room, revealing a single downward staircase, so narrow that only one person could barely fit in the space. Turning to his side, Shepard carefully maneuvered down the passageway, Garrus following behind him. Wrex's armour proved too broad to fit through the gap, and he returned to the previous chamber to salvage weapons and equipment. Their footsteps echoed as they descended, and Shepard realized that the ceiling reached up probably forty feet above them, carved of smoothened stone.

"You know, if mercenary and military groups want to convince people that combat isn't like it looks in the shitty Mikhailus Sinus vids, they really need to stop making long, creepy hallways in underground bunkers," Garrus quipped as they neared the bottom of the staircase, "it makes us look quite ridiculous."

The door opened into a sophisticated torture chamber. Brutal electrical and biological equipment lined the walls, each device conjuring up a more horrific image of its use than the last. A bank of terminals lined the wall to their right, powered on yet with dark screens that indicated inactivity. Two interrogation chairs sat in the middle of the room, each with clamps for the neck, wrists and ankles, and capable of swivelling to hold the unfortunate victim in any position necessary. The corpse attached to the chair on the right was mangled beyond recognition, its face coated in layers of blood. Bones protruded from the elbows and knees at unspeakable angles, and the profile of the ribcage was smashed in. The entire body was covered in acid burns, and the open mouth and closed eyes of the victim suggested that they had died in agony.

Had this been what Toombs had lived through for more than five years? Had he been forced to endure these same routines, these same brutalizing torture methods, that same agony? The very thought of it seemed unthinkable, and Shepard felt the walls begin to close in around him; he could almost picture Toombs in that chair, hear his voice screaming in pain as the torture implements were utilized, one by one, until their grizzly work was completed.

the chair on the right was occupied, yet the deceased denizen was in much better shape. The man was still clad in his Alliance Officer's Uniform, the two stars of a Rear Admiral clearly visible on his shoulder patches. His rough, nimble hands were heavily scarred, and two of the fingers on his left were visibly broken. A thick grey beard covered the lower reaches of his face, and even in death his face displayed the traits of calculating skill, shrewd strategy, and utter devotion to duty that had been associated with Rear Admiral Tané Kahoku in life. Unlike the man to his left, his face was a mask of peace; no acid burns scarred his chest, no contorted limbs or severed bones. Shepard sank to his knees, overcome by the sight. Again, they had failed – he had failed – to stop this menace.

Garrus scanned his omnitool over Kahoku's body, extracting what little data there was. "No signs of severe internal trauma," he tilted the Admiral's neck forward, revealing two needle incision marks, "his blood has extremely high levels of toxicity, likely administered via needle. The pain would have been minimal, and very quick."

Shepard nodded silently, and was about to get up when he spotted something on Kahoku's omnitool, a single blinking light. Curious, he tapped it to activate it, revealing a final audio message from the Admiral.

"Shepard, if you're getting this, then you've found my body. I don't have much time left," the voice's breathing was heavy, and becoming more rapid as the insidious poison took its effect. "If you're getting this, it means you've stopped them, ceased their vile experi-, oh God, this is agonizing. There is data stored on the terminals in this room, data that the Alliance needs to see. Get as much of it as you can to Admiral Hackett. It's vital to stopping Cerberus, it's-," the recording went blank, as the poison became too much for the admiral to handle.

No traces remained of Kahoku's captors; either they had left the base or were lying in a pool of blood outside. "Try one of the terminals on that far wall," Garrus suggested, "they're bound to have at least some data that the Alliance would find useful." A simple touch of his omnitool to the terminal's core activated it, with a calm VI voice disclosing basic information about the cell.

"_Noted: Now Accessing Operational Logs of Perses Cell, Cerberus Operational Division."_

Shepard began to access data on the terminal, parsing through reams and reams of information. It probably amounted to hundreds of terabytes of information – operating logistics for this particular Cerberus cell, high-level comms encryptions, weapons specs, even reports from previous projects that the group had worked on. One file in particular caught his eye, marked to January 2178. Curious, he tried to open it.

"_Noted: Unidentified user attempting access. Please place right index finger on the scanner below,"_ a small pad of light illuminated itself at the base of the terminal, and Shepard hesitantly placed his finger on the scanner. _"Identified: Systems Alliance Commander John C. Shepard, SSV Normandy, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Branch of the Citadel Council. Warning: Unauthorized access of Project Perses databases."_

All at once, the enormous volume of data began to disappear, erasing itself in an attempt to deny Shepard access to the secrets that lay within. Furious with himself for not bothering to check for those sorts of encryptions in the first place, Shepard hammered his omnitool into the terminal, desperately trying to extract what data he could. "Garrus," Shepard implored, "cut off any external uplinks; see if we can trap any of the data in the local servers!"

Garrus moved fast, but he found himself blocked at nearly every turn by another layer of encryption. "Damn, these Cerberus guys really know what they're doing. Quad-level encryption and combinatorics mixed with a multi-level data randomizer; impressive." He chuckled to himself as he saw Shepard's blank stare in return, "by the way, you weren't meant to understand any of that."

As the external servers seemed to close off, the terminals in the room began shutting down, each confirming that they had erased all data from their cores. Exasperated, Shepard turned to Garrus, who was quietly retracting his omnitool. "Did you get anything?"

Garrus cocked his head to one side as he pulled up the screen on his omnitool. "A little – mostly fragments of code and data. It'll take a while to reconstruct to a state where it's useful, but it's better than nothing." Garrus sighed as Shepard's entire frame seemed to weaken, "I'm sorry Shepard. We did all that we could."

"Did we?" Shepard turned to face the Turian, firmly planting both his feet in the ground and regarding him with a cool stare, "An Alliance Admiral is dead, and the data he wanted found is gone, possibly forever." He lashed out in his anger, kicking violently at the chair next to him and sending it sprawling across the room, "Dammit, I am _sick_ of being one step behind our enemies! I'm tired of being outsmarted, outgunned, and outwitted!"

Garrus eyed Shepard with concern, "Commander, I know how you feel. And yes, an admiral is dead and our enemy has vanished into thin air again, but they can only outsmart us for so long. You know that old human saying, the one about things which don't kill you only making you stronger?" Shepard nodded, slightly caught off-guard by Garrus's knowledge of human figures of speech, "well that applies here. We'll get these bastards, even if I have to kill half the mercs in the Terminus Systems to find them."

Those were odd words to come from a squadmate who had expressed those same doubts only hours ago, yet he knew the effect they were intended to have. "Thank-you Garrus; I appreciate your loyalty, and your optimism." Shepard began to unbuckle the restraints on Kahoku's wrists, as Garrus went to work on the clamps around the ankles.

"Shepard, I'm not a very good Turian, but stoic resolve in the face of suicidal odds is one thing that did rub off on me." Carefully, the two of them carried the admiral's body back up the narrow staircase, where Wrex was waiting at the top.

"I figured that whatever you'd found down there wasn't good," Wrex noted as he came back into view. He took one look at the admiral's body and nodded his head in confirmation, "Cerberus. I've about had it with these guys." He gestured to the broken bodies of Thresher Maws and Rachni on the floor, which had begun to decompose in the acidified mixture of their blood, "only nice part is that when it comes to experimenting with dangerous xenomorphs that could kill them without even putting in the effort, they're just as consistently stupid as the rest of humanity seems to be."

**Medical Bay, SSV **_**Normandy - **_**Yangtze System – one hour later**

Shepard sat in silence in the Medical Bay as Dr. Chakwas and Kaidan finished their examination of Admiral Kahoku's body. Exhausted from the fight on Binthu, he hadn't even bothered to remove his armour, and it hung about him haphazardly in various stages of damage and disassembly. The corpse now sat in another of the black plastic body bags, stored in cryogenic stasis in the corner and awaiting transfer to the Alliance at Arcturus. The mood on the ship was somber, particularly among the Alliance crew, who had greeted Shepard's announcement that they had found a dead Alliance Admiral with a mixture of shock and horror.

The data they had found on the Cerberus terminals had been forwarded to Admiral Hackett, who had been surprised to learn of Kahoku's death, though not of Cerberus's involvement. He had sent Shepard all relevant Intel on the group, though the Alliance's understanding of them was limited. A fanatical pro-human splinter group, Cerberus was dedicated to the advancement and supremacy of humanity, regardless of the cost to either themselves, the Alliance, or the other races of the galaxy. They were dangerous, they were ruthless, and they were extremely well-funded. Hackett's Intel estimated that the Alliance managed to bust at least two or three Cerberus shell corporations or slush funds every year. Yet the Alliance was sorely lacking in information about the group's operational capabilities, their logistics, and their structure, and the data they had gathered seemed to fill in huge gaps in their understanding. Hackett had assured Shepard that "Kahoku did not die for nothing." It certainly didn't feel that way to him though. The death of an officer as skilled as Kahoku seemed like a pretty heavy price to pay for a handful of data bits and file pieces.

Liara entered the med bay from her lab, a look of concern on her face. "Shepard, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Shepard replied, not really meaning it, "but an Admiral's body is never something you want to be the one to find."

"You did all you could Shepard." Liara said as she stood beside him, "you ended those vile experiments, and the Alliance never would have gotten the data if it weren't for you." Shepard relaxed slightly, Liara's words bringing some comfort to the bleak situation that they had extricated themselves from. "Shepard," she continued, "I've been thinking a lot about what you said a few days ago, about us," she seemed to struggle to find the words to express herself.

"And? Where are we at, Liara?" He was relieved to see the conversation turn in this direction; it took his mind off of what they had seen on Binthu.

She looked into his eyes, drawing his gaze into her ocean-blue irises, "I…I want to make this work, Shepard. I've never felt this way about anyone before, and I'm frightened by it; I feel the same was as you, but Goddess, this is all horrifyingly new to me." She swallowed nervously, shifting her weight between her feet, "and I don't want it to get in the way of the mission. We can't let our feelings for each other stop us from finding Saren, we-,"

Her thought was interrupted by the sudden blaring of the _Normandy_'s General Quarters alarm, a low sonic utterance that resonated throughout the corridors of the ship. Even through the walls of the medical bay, he could hear the scattering of crew from the Mess Hall, as weapons technicians and engineers scrambled for their battle positions.

"Commander, we've got a distress call coming in from the Fifth Fleet that you're going to want to hear," Joker sounded both concerned and excited, "the colony of Feros in the Attican Beta Cluster just broadcast that it is under attack by the Geth. And it's not an ordinary attack either; surveillance probes picked up confirmed readings of the _Sovereign_. Saren's there."

Shepard turned to Liara, who seemed to have forgotten all traces of their previous conversation. "Liara, get your gear and be ready to go groundside from the airlock in forty minutes."

She simply nodded, her concern and thoughtfulness replaced by a hardened resolve that now seemed so natural to her that it was as if she had been born as a hardened mercenary. "What's happening."

As he left the Medical Bay for the CIC, the words seemed to hang in the air, suspended in the horror and gravity of their implications.

"It's begun."

**Next Week: _The Mind of Prometheus_**


	10. Chapter 9: The Mind of Prometheus

9: The Mind of Prometheus

"Feros – you ought to fear to go into those ruined towers. The Protheans dug too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Oson-Dalei: The synaptic nightmare waits for those who venture into that lost city, and none who enter can escape its wrath." – Prothean Data Disc VX928B45J, Catalogued by Serrice University, 2153

**SSV Normandy – Theseus System, Attican Beta**

Stealth systems fully engaged, Joker brought the _Normandy_ out of FTL and into the vast emptiness of the Theseus System. Unlike the cluttered asteroid belts and comet showers of the Sparta and Yangtze Systems, Theseus was an astronomical backwater, a medium-sized system of five planets with virtually no extrasolar bodies, no asteroids, no comet activity, and virtually no interstellar traffic. The only two planets capable of sustaining life – Feros (the second planet in the system) and Quana (the fourth) – were bleak and desolate worlds, dotted with the ruins of Prothean megacities and mining structures, picked clean by looters over the course of the millennia since the downfall of the Prothean Empire. It had not always been so. At one point, the Theseus System had been one of the greatest hubs of commerce in the entire Prothean Empire. Ideally situated between the Prothean Core Worlds and the military hubs of the Citadel, Eden Prime and Ilos, Feros had prospered in its own golden age, with massive arcology structures rising skyward as the commerce of a thousand planets enriched its coffers.

Those days were long gone, and even the towers themselves contained few traces of their former denizens. Whatever calamity had befallen the Protheans had hit Feros as well, though not as hard as some other worlds. When ExoGeni had begun surveys of the planet in 2176, they had been startled to find the skyscrapers remarkably intact, considering that on other worlds the habitation centers had been so thoroughly obliterated by mass-accelerator bombardment that not even the foundations remained. Strange readings had emanated from several sites throughout the ruins of the megacities, and ExoGeni had established a pilot colony – Zhu's Hope – in an effort to better explore the ruins. Their findings were not readily shared with the Alliance – ExoGeni was notorious for a level of secrecy that even Binary Helix found too extreme – but rumors of heavy fiscal losses and technical problems dogged the extranet.

"What makes this attack different," Shepard asked Admiral Hackett as he stood at the comms terminal in the command room. "The Alliance has been getting dozens of reports of Geth attacks across the Traverse, and yet you've never contacted me before. What changed?"

"Generally speaking, the attacks have followed a broadly-discernible pattern: They've hit military and trade hubs, and we've determined that the bulk of this effort is focused on preventing us from adequately scouting the Traverse in search of Saren and the _Sovereign_. Feros doesn't fit either of those; it's not a military hub, and is basically a self-contained export-less colony of less than one hundred people. Something has to be different simply by process of elimination. We've also never had a confirmed report of the _Sovereign_ joining an attack on a human colony, and six separate recon probes confirmed the _Sovereign_ – or at least a ship matching the profile we reconstructed based on data from Eden Prime – entering the Theseus System three hours before ExoGeni broadcast their distress signal. Add to that the presence of Prothean ruins, and it wasn't a difficult leap."

"I'll get down there as fast as I can. We'll do our best to save the colony."

"If what you've told me about Saren's goal is accurate, then saving the colony should be a secondary priority. What's more important is finding whatever Saren is looking for, and making sure that he can't get it." The terminal faded to black as Hackett cut the connection.

Shepard assembled his crew in the command room, each of them in varying states of preparation and emotional readiness. Kaidan and Ashley looked noticeably jarred from the knowledge that a human colony had been openly attacked by Saren and the Geth, while Tali and Garrus stood idly in the corner, each having agreed to sit out the groundside mission to finish the final upgrades to the Mako.

"ExoGeni's pilot colony of Zhu's Hope has reported being under heavy attack by the Geth, and Alliance Intel suggests that Saren himself is on the planet. We're not sure what he's after, but," he glanced at Liara, who looked up with a knowing look, "we're pretty sure that there's something in the ruins of the Prothean towers that's the key to the Conduit, and whatever it is, it's critical that Saren not obtain it. Wrex," Shepard nodded in the Krogan's direction, as he responded by menacingly reloading his shotgun, "you're going groundside with Garrus and I. If something goes wrong, Kaidan will lead a backup team of Tali and Liara to rendezvous at Zhu's Hope."

The six men and women in front of him nodded, their tasks assigned. "Tali," Shepard motioned to her, "I need you on the video link at all times. You're our leading Geth expert, and if we run into any software or hardware problems I'll want your input." The Quarian nodded before heading for the crew deck. Shepard moved close to Liara, who turned to face him, "I'll also need you on the link. If we find anything Prothean, we'll patch you in."

"But Shepard, if you need a Prothean expert, why not take me groundside?" It wasn't anger or derision in her eyes, but merely curiosity.

"This is going to be a vicious firefight, and I need raw firepower and tech. Garrus is an excellent hacker – and the best sniper I've ever seen, and Wrex has more combat experience than everyone on this ship combined. I can't risk losing our Prothean specialist to the Geth," he lowered his head slightly, bringing his voice so quiet that only Liara could make out the words, "I can't risk losing you, for the sake of the mission – or me."

**SSV Normandy – Docking Bay A1, Zhu's Hope, Prothean Tower 1437 (ExoGeni Designation), Feros**

The descent to Zhu's Hope proved surprisingly easy, even without the stealth systems that would have made the infiltration a cakewalk for the _Normandy_. The few Geth warship signatures they had picked up were either well outside of the threat-neutralization radius, or too absorbed in the slow demolition of various Prothean towers that they paid no mind to the intrusion of a small Alliance frigate into their airspace. None of the scans picked up a ship anywhere near the size of the _Sovereign_, which suggested to Shepard and Joker that the main blow of the attack had already been landed; this was a cleanup and mop-up effort.

Impatient to get to the colony, Shepard, Wrex and Garrus stalked the airlock chamber in anticipation as the _Normandy_ synced its pressure and atmospheric conditions with those of Feros. The first thing that struck Shepard was the sheer weight of the atmospheric pressure, nearly six times that of earth, as it seemed to compress on his lungs and force surplus oxygen into his body. Their suits had been hardwired with a series of non-inhibitor injections, so as to prevent the 'oxygen drunk' effect that so often accompanied high-pressure worlds.

_"Logged: The Commanding Officer is ashore, XO Pressly has the deck." _The airlock door opened into a large docking bay made entirely of a concrete-like substance. Compared with the facilities on Noveria, it was extremely small, with barely enough room for the _Normandy_ to fit its sleek frame into the interior of the Prothean tower. It was the most bare-bones version of a docking facility that Shepard had ever seen, and it was abundantly clear that Feros received virtually no traffic beyond the occasional supply run.

And it was empty and quiet, too quiet. There should have been people in this docking facility – refugees attempting to escape the bombardment, reinforcements from the Alliance, _someone_ – but there weren't. No guards stood at attention to process them through customs, no merchants clambered over one another to try and sell weapons or armour to a Spectre.

"It's way too quiet here," Garrus echoed Shepard's thoughts.

"What did you expect, coming to a Prothean world," Wrex muttered as he covered their flank, "this isn't a colony, it's a tomb."

There was only one passage out of the docking bay – a low-hanging door that seemed to lead into a decaying and cracked stairwell. As they passed under the beam of the doorway, Shepard heard the faintest echo of the telltale sound of a Geth platform, the near-indiscernible clicking that gave away their presence.

Wrex was clearly on-edge, his biotics flared and his shotgun pointed skyward as they entered the stairwell. "Do you hear that Shepard? We're not alone." He swivelled to face up the stairs as he saw it – a single Geth mobile hopper, its appendages seemingly glued to the column that the staircase snaked around as it ascended the tower. The first laser blast missed him by inches, sending Wrex sprawling for cover as more Hoppers descended on them. "Fuck, we're definitely not alone!"

Garrus had gifted Shepard with a shotgun mod that added a slight electrostatic charge to the mass fragments it fired, and they proved devastating against the Geth, shredding through their polymetallic armour and shorting much of their internal circuitry. They were difficult targets to hit, as their increased mobility allowed them to evade all but the most well-placed of shots. Wrex managed to catch two of them in a Biotic Lift, rendering them helpless against Shepard as he threw a biotic warp to catch the prone Geth in a massive biotic explosion, tearing them apart in a spectacular shower of metal and burning wiring.

"I find it odd how effective biotics seem to be against Geth synthetics," Garrus noted as they climbed the stairs to the upper levels of the tower.

"Not particularly," Wrex responded, "the Quarians have virtually no biotics, so it's an angle of combat that they wouldn't have considered."

Without warning, Shepard's comm unit sparked to life, "….is anyone reading this? This is Fai Dan, Chief Coordinating Officer of Zhu's Hope. Does anyone read?"

Shepard tapped the link into his squad's communications, "This is the Commander of the SSV _Normandy_, Special Tactics and Recon. What's the situation?"

"Alliance? Thank God you've come; the situation is deteriorating here, and fast! We're bunkered down in the main square – five floors above the docking bay, but we have very few weapons, few trained soldiers, and more Geth are showing up every minute. Please, save us!" Shepard sprinted the last few flights of stairs, hurdling over a large pile of rubble from the broken and cracked ceiling above them. The level of decay in the tower was staggering, and he was amazed that it was still standing. Shepard reached the final doorway into Zhu's Hope well ahead of Liara and Wrex, and found himself standing in the midst of a large crowd of researchers and refugees.

Zhu's Hope was one of the smallest colonies he had ever seen: the stairwell opened to a large (though hardly massive) open-air courtyard at the top of the tower, with a clear view of the dust-choked sky and the looming shadows of much taller skyscrapers around them. The courtyard was occupied by a handful of prefab shelter units, the largest of which stretched over fifty feet in length and housed sleeping pods, medical facilities, and its own small armoury. Behind him stood the most meagre of power-supply resources he had ever seen – a single Prothean-era water-main being serviced by a lone technician, two power generators that seemed to have either been knocked out or simply left to deteriorate of their own accord. Three living shelters lined the wall to his left, with several large storage crates positioned opposite them bisecting the settlement into two separated halves, which were bridged by a single steel catwalk that appeared to be the only thing placed with any precision in the entire courtyard; everything else looked as if it had been haphazardly dropped from orbit, with nothing but a wing and a prayer to ensure that it landed where it was supposed to.

The sound of gunfire led Shepard across the catwalk towards the far exit from the settlement, where two dozen exhausted and lightly-armed colonists were struggling to fight off the vanguard of the Geth forces attacking the colony. A half-dozen body bags were stacked in the corner, and makeshift durasteel barricades provided a token defense against the rapid fire of the Geth Pulse Rifles. When the gunfire briefly ceased, one of the colonists peered out from behind the barricade, probably to see whether the Geth were still attacking. She was greeted by a hail of rifle-fire, which tore through her shoulder and sent her sprawling to the ground in a shower of blood. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and losing – fast.

Shepard sprinted to the barricade, throwing several Geth over the side of the railing at the far end of the hallway with the use of his biotics. It took seconds for the Geth to turn their attention from the colonists to refocus their fire on him; their consensus synapse worked at the speed of light to reassess him as the primary threat. He caught two of them directly in the centre of a Warp blast, before throwing a biotics-fuelled punch at the Geth closest to the barriers, shattering its eye-plate and sending it flying. He turned to another group of Geth to find them already trapped in an electrically-charged overload field, as Garrus and Wrex moved across the walkway to catch up with him. The Krogan battlemaster charged a group of Geth, sending them scattering as his biotic-fuelled rage smashed through their armoured plates piecemeal. Garrus hung back, keeping himself out of the firing line of the Geth as his sniper rifle coldly did its work, shattering through the face-plates of perhaps a half-dozen of the synthetics as they drove them back. Though a terror for the untrained colonists, the Geth proved no match for a veteran of C-SEC and the Turian Blackwatch, a centuries-old battlemaster, and a Spectre, and in under a minute the survivors of the offensive were straggling back into the upper reaches of the tower, while those who vainly sought to lay down suppressive fire found themselves picked off by precision shots from Shepard's HMWA assault rifle – a Spectre-level engine of destruction that Shepard had requisitioned during their last supply run to the Citadel.

One of the colonists recovered himself from the barricade and moved towards Shepard cautiously, his pistol pointed downward and with a limp in his left leg. He was an older man, with lines of age and worry streaked across his forehead and jaw, and dark military-length cropped hair. "Thank God you got here when you did, another few minutes and…I don't want to even think about what would have happened to us."

One of the other colonists, a young dark-haired woman sporting navy blue armour, pointed at them accusingly, "it's a bit late of you to show up, isn't it?"

"Arcelia!" The man seemed to command some authority amongst the colonists. "Sorry," he explained as he turned back to Shepard, "everyone's been on-edge since the start of the Geth attack. We are grateful to you for helping us, Commander…"

"Commander John Shepard, SSV _Normandy_, Special Tactics and Recon."

"-Shepard, thank-you." He extended a hand to Shepard, "I'm Fai Dan, leader of Zhu's Hope. We've been fighting a losing battle here for close to two days; most of us haven't slept in nearly three. They pushed us out of this settlement at one point – forced us down into the lower tunnels, but then they abandoned the position and we were able to retake it."

"But there will be more," Arcelia noted with concern, "there's always more. We've just succeeded in slowing them down." The roar of engines above them seemed to confirm her fears, as a Geth dropship circled above them, having deposited its cargo in another of the Prothean towers. The ship seemed to pay them no mind as it jetted past the colony towards another of the towering structures.

None of this added up; why would the Geth attack such an obviously backwater colony. "Any idea what they're after, or why they attacked you?"

Fai Dan shook his head, "we have no idea. All we know is that they came here two days ago and started to attack us. We've lost about a quarter of the population to Geth attacks, and we have another group cut off from contact in the ExoGeni headquarters. That's also where the Geth have set up their base, and they've been sending out raiding parties from there ever since."

"How do we get there?"

"There's an elevator that takes you further up the tower," Arcelia explained as Fai Dan left to tend to the wounded, "it leads to a Prothean skyway that connects this tower to the Exogeni headquarters; it's the second tower in the skyway system after this one."

Garrus nodded approvingly, "one more thing – there were Alliance reports of a massive dreadnought on Feros, a ship called _Sovereign_ and controlled by the rogue Spectre that leads these Geth. Do you know anything about that?"

Fai Dan shook his head, "we have no recon equipment, no communication beyond emergency channels, no professional soldiers, and no presence beyond the four towers that Zhu's Hope occupies. We haven't seen anything, and we don't know anything. All we know is that the Geth attacked, and we're fighting for our survival!"

Shepard placed himself between the two, as he tried to defuse the situation, "easy, Fai Dan. I understand that you're all on edge, but we think this attack is part of a broader offensive with very specific goals. We think the Turian that ordered this attack is after specific Prothean items." He looked directly at Fai Dan, who seemed to have backed off somewhat, "do you know of anything Prothean in these ruins that would be important enough to attract the attention of other races?"

Fai Dan seemed about to answer, breathing in as if to reply, but suddenly seemed to subside into muted passivity. "…no, commander, I can't think of anything of importance in these ruins. If ExoGeni found something that only the higher-ups are aware of, information would be…" he seemed to pause again, as though the words were struggling to come forth, "ExoGeni tower," he mumbled finally. Shepard nodded in thanks and left the courtyard, leaving Fai Dan and Arcelia to the defense of the Zhu's Hope.

"I've definitely seen more talkative colonists in my time," Wrex muttered under his breath as they entered the still-functioning elevator to the Prothean Skyway, "and friendlier ones."

"They've been under attack for three days. Not even a Turian colony could last that long under siege without some of them finally snapping, and we're noted for our discipline."

"Still, they seemed more on-edge than usual, and there's obviously something that they're not telling us," Shepard observed as the elevator reached the upper level, "hopefully the people over at the Headquarters are more forthcoming with their information."

The Skyway garage echoed the ruined state of the rest of the Prothean tower, with enormous piles of rubble and debris dotting the cavernous chamber. They entered on the high ground overlooking a gradual slope downward onto the floor of the garage, where a single unaltered M35 Mako was parked and ready for deployment. At the far end of the garage sat a towering steel door, thirty feet high and forty feet wide, its electronics hardwired back into working operation. Two makeshift barricades stood opposite the door on the upper bluff of the room, though they had long since been abandoned by the defenders. Bodies littered the lower slope of the garage, an even mix of Geth and colonists from the opening attacks by the synthetics on the colony.

Shepard, Wrex and Garrus clambered into the Mako, its controls and VI slowly humming to life. Unlike the Alliance Makos, which received frequent software and diagnostic upgrades from the technicians and computer specialists back on Earth, this Mako was running on outdated software, with sluggish controls that responded poorly to Shepard's touch. Add to the mix the fact that Garrus's upgrades of their own Mako had made it even better than the standard Alliance tank, and this older model seemed barely drivable by comparison. The VI was patchy, constantly shifting in and out of focus and readiness. Shepard carefully eased the throttle forward, and was pressed back against his seat as the Mako shot wildly forward, narrowly avoiding crashing into the gate out onto the skyway.

Annoyed at the technical problems of the Mako, Shepard turned back to Vakarian, who was already busy patching his omnitool into the Mako's software. "Garrus, please tell me there is something you can do to make this thing handle like something other than a drunken rhinoceros."

"I have no idea what a rhinoceros is, but okay," the reply came mixed with sarcasm and a sardonic 'I told you so' tone, "this is _really_ out of date. Doesn't ExoGeni patch their software?"

"Apparently not," Tali's voice joined theirs over her comm link, "and Vakarian, you want to apply patch 32C4X, not 32C4Y – the addition of the quantum thruster transmission encodings is only designed for models that have the hardware upgrade as well. This is an M35J; the Alliance now equips M35Rs, so you'd totally fry the gravirometric sensors."

"Sorry to cut in," Wrex added from his engineer's seat, "but were we meant to understand any of that?"

There was a long pause in the cabin of the Mako, "nope," Garrus replied, "give us thirty seconds and we should have this thing ready to handle, and not like a drunken…whatever that thing was." The VI interface in the Mako suddenly disappeared, as Garrus and Tali applied the software updates they could. After twenty seconds of blinking lights, the controls appeared again, in the more familiar green that indicated that software was up-to-date. The Mako responded perfectly to Shepard's touch, gently moving through the opening gate and onto the skyway; he offered his thanks to Garrus and Tali, before shutting off the comm link and flooring the Mako's throttle.

The vehicle shot through the newly-opened gate and out onto the Prothean skyway. Once a hallmark of Prothean architecture – its sleek, 20-foot wide concrete and durasteel frame gracefully arcing from tower to tower, the fifty thousand years since the fall of the Empire had not been kind to the network. The road was dotted with five-foot deep potholes, large slabs of upturned concrete, and piles of rubble eerily similar to those on the inside of the towers. The skyway was divided into two main thoroughfares – one sloped above and the other below, with a narrow walkway for foot traffic snaking beneath the upper roadway. A kilometer in front of them stood another tower, similar in height to the one they had come from.

The Geth were everywhere, occupying every inch of high ground, with Armatures and Juggernauts patrolling the broken road of the skyway. Wrex made short work of the first group with the Mako's cannon, but Shepard had to veer off to the side in order to avoid the blast of a large cluster of Armatures two hundred metres in front of them, throwing the three of them around the interior of the Mako. The vehicle was thrown off course, careening against the slanted wall of the skyway and slipping into an awkward barrel-roll towards the sheer drop that marked the edge of the roadway. Trying not to panic, Shepard threw the controls for the thrusters skyward, stopping their momentum-fuelled lurch towards the fall precariously close to the edge of the skyway. He felt the back wheels of the Mako slide off the edge, felt the vehicle begin to list backward as gravity took its hold. Frantically, Shepard floored the rear jets, coaxing every last ounce of thrust he could out of them to prevent the Mako from tumbling into a hundred-foot dive of destruction. Time seemed to hang in the balance, as the Mako's newly recalibrated jets did their work, righting the vehicle and bringing it back from the edge of the chasm. Wrex's expression was stoic, his eyes fixed firmly forward, while Garrus's iron discipline seemed to be doing its work. Nodding to himself, Shepard eased the throttle forward again and continued on into the next tower.

The spire proved uninteresting and uninviting, consisting almost entirely of a series of upward ramps to drive the Mako towards another level of the skyway. There was no hint of its current denizens, though here and there the odd piece of wreckage betrayed its function as one of the makeshift habitations of Zhu's Hope – a fluorescent light, a crate of supplies, a weapon locker, a medigel dispenser; all seemed to speak of having been abandoned in haste.

"I'm amazed that these colonists managed to survive here," Garrus remarked as they continued their ascent up the network of ramps, "I guess it just shows how resilient humanity is."

"That's not the word I would use," Wrex shot back, "'reckless, naïve, and stupid' come to mind more readily. They've been attacked by one of the largest armadas in the galaxy, and they have no idea why. Leave it to the humans to be unaware of what's lying beneath their own feet."

"The leader at the first settlement – Fai Dan, I think his name was – seemed to know something, but also seemed very reluctant to talk," Shepard observed, "I'm really hoping there are people in the next tower, and that they have genuine answers for me."

The ascending ramps finally ended, and opened into a spectacular vista – one of the most impressive Shepard had ever seen. A kilometre further onto the Skyway stood an enormous tower, the largest they had seen thus far on Feros. It dwarfed the spires they had already been in, rising possibly thousands of feet into the air, a broken concrete shell of its former glory. From their vantage point, Shepard could see the insect-like profile of two Geth cruisers attached to the side of the tower, their spindly, yet strong and heavily-armoured landing gear clamped firmly to the walls. Narrow crevasses zig-zagged their way up the tower, with three main patterns arcing in and out of one another as they flowed skyward. Despite all the problems the pilot colony had encountered – the total lack of arable land, the temperamental Prothean aqueducts, the infestations of Varren – ExoGeni had still found time to display a massive banner with their corporate logo – a graphic of the atomic model emblazoned over "EG" in block lettering – from the tower. Even at the edge of civilization, corporate vanity was never quite dead.

What few Geth remained in their path were quickly blown to pieces by the Mako's cannon, and within minutes they had reached the entrance to the tower, a majestic set of double-steel doors that opened to reveal an interior just as decrepit and ruined as the previous two they had encountered. Yet here the traces of human activity were more evident; floodlights lined the wall, and the burning hulks of two Grizzly armoured vehicles lay in the corner, long since decimated by the Geth. Cautiously, the three of them exited the Mako, but not before Wrex withdrew a sleek device from his armour and planted it on the side. A design of Tali's, the chip was designed to set off an EMP blast within a five-metre radius of the Mako if it detected active synthetic technology approaching.

The primary entrance to the headquarters was cut off by a Geth shield projector, a vast wall of blue that obscured everything behind it. Curious to see how powerful it was, Shepard hesitantly placed a hand against it; it felt as solid as the concrete around it, and didn't bend or warp to his touch. Wrex was more forceful, as he fired off several rounds from his shotgun into the luminescent forcefield; they bounced off harmlessly as if they were paper. Shepard activated his omnitool screen, pulling up Kaidan and Tali, both of whom were clustered in the cargo hold of the _Normandy_ near their Mako. "We've got a problem on this end," Shepard explained to them, "there's some sort of forcefield between us and the door. Any way you guys can hack it?"

Kaidan nodded, deferring to Tali for her expertise on Geth hardware and software. "Let me see here…Keelah, this is much more advanced than the standard Geth models. I'm not sure quite what they did to it, but the encryption layers are much more thorough than anything else I've ever seen. I could probably crack it eventually, but it would take a while…four hours is my best guess, and…" she glanced at Garrus, who emphatically shook his head, "I don't think we've got that kind of time."

"Try and find another route further into the tower," Garrus offered, "there's got to be more than one way to get in there, and they can't have blocked _all_ of them off."

Sure enough, Shepard turned to see the slightest of openings in the floor, a narrow hole burned into the ground by the boring light of the Geth laser equipment. The drop was slight, less than ten feet, yet he had no idea where it could possibly lead to. Throwing caution to the wind, Shepard dropped the balls of his feet and leapt into the chasm, his booted feet connecting with rubble seconds later. Garrus was close behind him, his assault rifle already out and ready for action. Wrex proved a bit more difficult, and it took several minutes and an imaginative string of curses for him to shift his massive frame through the opening. Garrus took point as they navigated the narrow hallway in front of them, his mind alert for any possible threat and his visor picking out every minutia of detail.

The going was slow, as there was barely enough room to maneuver for a Human or a Turian, let alone a full-size Krogan. After five minutes of awkward and at-times painful trecking through the confined corridor, they came upon the first sign of someone else actually being in the tower; the bullet-riddled corpse of a male Varren lay in front of them, slowly bleeding out and staring at them with its lifeless eyes.

Wrex sniffed the air, his equivalent of a brow shrivelling in disgust. "Smell that? This is a fresh kill, probably less than an hour old. Someone's down here."

The corridor opened into a vast atrium of light and concrete, one that was in the same broken and ruined condition as every other goddamned room they'd been in on this planet. A hundred metres in front of them the wall opened into a series of large stone-ringed windows – or they would have been windows, had they had glass in them, the five of which flooded the chamber with light, blinding Shepard as his eyes slowly readjusted to the intensity.

A single shot rang out from across the room, and Shepard felt his barriers strain under the impact of the shot. Garrus reacted instinctively, dropping to one knee and aiming across the room as his visor tracked the path of the shot. Shepard and Wrex were already sprinting for the left side of the room, where a single barricade rested awkwardly against the edge of the upper ledge.

"Oh Jesus, I just shot you, didn't I?" The voice was panicked, frightened, and Shepard followed it to find a young woman, barely older than twenty-five, cowering beneath the barricade, a look of fear and confusion in her eyes. Her hair was short and neatly cut, parted at the front. She was dressed in a green and black labcoat, the ExoGeni logo clearly visible on the lapel. "I'm so sorry! I thought you were more of those Varren, they've been making their way into this room for close to half a day now." She lowered her pistol to the floor, slowly walking towards Shepard, "my name is Lizbeth Baynham; I'm a researcher with ExoGeni."

Shepard holstered his weapon, though Garrus kept his firmly trained behind them, covering the flank in case more of the Varren showed up. "what are you doing here in the ExoGeni building? Where are the rest of the colonists?"

Lizbeth glanced around the room, the angst and worry plain on her face, "some of them are trapped further up the building, pinned down by the Geth. A few more managed to bunker down in the building before this one in the Skyway network. I came here to try to get a signal to ExoGeni. I think I know why the Geth attacked the colony, you need to find-," her sentence was cut off by a piercing shriek of pain, as she fell to the ground, clutching her head in agony. Writhing on the floor, eyes glazed over in pain, her back arched as her scream pierced the heavens, sending chills down Shepard's spine.

Garrus and Wrex had their weapons drawn within seconds, yet there was no sign of either Varren or Geth in the room. Shepard hesitated for moments before grasping her wrist tightly, activating the medigel current that flowed over her. It seemed to calm her down somewhat, and soon she was no longer twisting and convulsing in torment. It took her a while to regain her feet, sweat pouring from her brow and pain laced into every inch of her face. "I'm sorry…I can't say anything more, I-, I'm not able to. Here, take this," she passed him a small steel card, "it's my pass into the ExoGeni computer systems." Every word was a struggle, every thought torture as she vainly tried to squeeze the words out, "It-, it will tell you what you need to know, I'm sorry…"she lapsed into a panicked state, rocking back and forth as she clutched at her own knees.

In exchange, Shepard handed her his pistol, a heavily-modified Rosenkov Materials Karpov VII. "Take this, and when you're able to walk, get to higher ground. Stay there until we can get into contact with you." She head jerked up and down indicating understanding, and Shepard and his squadmates exited the room through the door to their left.

Garrus waited until the door had firmly closed behind them before turning to Shepard and Wrex. "I'm not a neuroscientist, but that didn't seem normal."

"And she's not the first one either," Shepard remarked as they began to ascend a set of stairs that led further into the tower, "Fai Dan and Arcelia weren't exactly forthcoming either. At least we know that there's something in here now."

Wrex snorted mockingly behind him, "not that that narrows it down at all. I don't like this place; it feels like being in the City of the Ancients on Tuchunka again. Some secrets of the Protheans were best left buried."

At the top of the staircase was a small workstation, its terminal cracked and broken by repeated exposure to weapons fire. Garrus hacked it quickly, bringing up a single encrypted message – all that had survived of its databanks.

_SNDR: Researcher Vincent Cooper, ExoGeni Project #D37.B2_

_RCVR: SUP Ethan Jeong, ExoGeni Project #D37_

_21 June, 2182 (ESC)_

_ Test 3X was administered to subjects 27 through 33. Subjects 27, 28, 29 and 32 exhibited cognitive and formative degeneration in line with results already seen from Subjects 1 through 9 and 13 through 21. Adrenal gland expansion was noted to be higher, nearly 2.6 times the predicted rate. _

_ Subjects 27 and 28 were administered concentrated doses of Pergnim IVXB, and exhibited some resistance to SP37. Additional expansion of the adrenal glands and decay of the frontal cortex were observed, in line with results from Subject 21. Within 32 standard hours, all resistance to SP37 had been broken down and usual symptoms were accelerated. Recommend further tests with Pergnim IVXC and IVXD to compensate for temporary neural decay._

_ Control group at Zhu's Hope 1 remains unaltered beyond initial findings. Recommend passive course of action – no new stimulants or additives._

Shepard read the contents over and over, digesting the meaning as realization slowly came to him. "It looks like they're performing experiments of some sort on colonists."

Garrus retrieved the files onto his omnitool as they kept moving. "Imagine, ExoGeni Corporation being unethical, immoral, possibly illegal, and performing live experiments on colonies," he voiced with mock incredulity, "who would have ever imagined they'd do such a thing?"

"It keeps mentioning this 'SP37'. Any idea what that could be?"

"Possibly a virus or a chemical agent of some sort; Pergnim is a Binary Helix drug – it's designed to stimulate neural activity, usually to strengthen biotic tendencies, but I have no idea what they'd be using it for here. A biological or chemical weapon perhaps?" Shepard had no response.

The next set of stairs topped out into another of the narrow hallways that populated the ExoGeni tower, only this one was different. Sharp symbols were chiselled into the granite wall as they walked through the corridor, with a pattern of small images and icons following along below it. One of them caught Shepard's eye – a seeming mass of tentacles, two slanted and furious orbs glaring out from beneath them. Even fifty thousand years later, the waves of light the Protheans had carved radiating outward from the being were still clear-cut and visible.

A holo-terminal lay on the floor at the far end of the hallway, and Shepard activated using the pass given to him by Baynham. It suggested that the scrawled symbols on the wall were in fact Prothean script, and had begun a rough translation of several of the characters:

_"The _i_ i_ not _ _ri_on _ i_ i_ _ _f_, _n_ the _n_ of T_ro_ _i_ _r_ i_."_

"Well that's maddeningly unhelpful," Garrus drawled sarcastically as Shepard stared, confused, at the indecipherable text in front of him. His omnitool was in his hand immediately, as he hurriedly scanned the carved script.

He tried to connect to Liara on the _Normandy_, hoping she could translate what remained, but the signal was blocked. "Dammit! We're on our own."

Garrus brought up his omnitool, triangulating and locating the source of the interference. "Found it! It's the same field that's blocking the entrance further back, and it's emanating from the Geth cruiser anchored to the tower. We'll have to cut the connection somehow."

They continued through the hallway, eventually coming to a vast open chamber similar to the one they had found Baynham in. The light, however, was gone, as the openings in the wall were blotted out by the twisting steel colossus that was the anchors of the Geth Cruiser. They were enormous, occupying fully half the room and separating the chamber into three individual nodes. Cables and wires extended outwards from the great claws, covering virtually every inch of floor space in electronic wiring and tubing. "Well that's a problem," Garrus observed as they moved alongside the claw, "reinforced triple-strengthened titanium; even the Turian Fleet doesn't have armour that strong. There is no way that our weapons are sheering through this thing, and unless I'm mistaken," his visor scanned across the base, then looked up through the ceiling, "cutting the individual cables won't do. There are thousands of them, and they're all in a reinforced weave of titanium and copper. It would take weeks to cut them all."

"Any indication of what's above us?"

"Looks like another power source of some kind, though there are a few readings that definitely stand out as not being Geth. They're pretty weak, but it's definitely coming from a hardware mainframe. We should check it out." Garrus began to maneuver himself over the first of the Geth cruiser's claws, but stopped and ducked down as his eyes peered over the ledge, and he quickly holstered his assault rifle and drew his sniper. "Hold on, we've got Geth on the other side." His sniper tracked the targets, and three shots rang out in rapid succession. He glanced back down at Shepard and Wrex, offering a hand, "coast is clear."

One set of wires on the other side snaked into an ExoGeni terminal, its screen still fully intact and its functions largely working. Curious as to what he'd find, Shepard accessed the databases with Baynham's card again, pulling up several sets of files similar to the ones they'd found before.

_SNDR: Assistant Deputy Researcher Giovanni Tesla, ExoGeni Project #D37.C6_

_RCVR: SUP Ethan Jeong, ExoGeni Project #D37_

_14 November 2182 (ESC)_

_ The effects of the psychosis on Subjects 43 through 50 have increased substantially. Subjects displayed a complete loss of cognitive function upon exposure to S37. Strangely, any attempt to mention S37 results in convulsions, hypertension, and extremes of pain and euphoria, rendering the subject completely inoperative. Suspect that this is a defense mechanism of S37, so as to minimize the potential for harm. If so, it's a lot smarter than we had initially thought. Recommend closer monitoring of both the control group at ZH1 and the group being exposed to Pernim IVXC – up their dosage to 39.37mg per six-hour period._

"Well, it's definitely not a chemical agent," Shepard remarked as he scanned through the text, "loss of cognitive function, psychosis, extremes of pain, convulsions..." that all sounded eerily familiar to what they had watched Lizbeth endure not too long ago. And the reference to heightened effects when 'S37' was mentioned…it explained the reluctance of Arcelia or Fai Dan to broach the subject.

Wrex shook his head, understanding in his rapidly swivelling and darting eyes. "I'd say our researcher was definitely on it. Whatever this thing is, it's bad. And powerful." He glanced around the room, attentive for any sign of Geth activity, "we should keep moving."

The corridors continued their winding pattern, leading them up another stairwell to the level above them. The coils of wiring and electronics that had polluted the floor of the chamber below them were everywhere up here, infecting every inch of floor space even in the narrow corridors. The Geth resistance was substantially heavier as well, and they encountered hostiles in virtually every room they entered.

The corridors eventually led to another of the vast stone chambers that they had encountered in the lower levels. At one time, this chamber appeared to have been converted into a hangar, and the locking mechanism on the bay doors that covered the expansive openings was clearly visible. They had been raised by the Geth, and another set of the reinforced claw-anchors had been latched onto the room, their metallic hulks dividing the chamber into the usual group of separate compartments. They had entered on a balcony overlooking the floor of the chamber, which gave them the advantage over the few Geth waiting below them.

On the far side of the room, standing beside what looked like a large panel of instruments for the doors, was a Geth unit unlike anything they had seen thus far. It stood well over ten feet high, with two sets of antennae sprouting up from its back. Titanium plates of gleaming white were interwoven with specialized ablative armour, designed to shield it from all but the most powerful weapons. The pulse rifle it carried was more than double the size of those used by standard Geth units. His omnitool scanning equipment identified it as a 'Geth Prime', one of the most elite platforms within the Geth Consensus.

The Geth Prime advanced towards them, its shields harmlessly deflecting Garrus's opening salvo of assault-rifle shots. Even from fifteen meters away, Shepard could see a slight glow on the Prime's rife as it shot an electromagnetic pulse in their direction. He felt his shotgun seize up as the electronics went haywire, jamming the weapon and placing it dangerously close to an electric overload. He rapidly sheathed the weapon and switched to his unaffected pistol – the weaker of his weapons, since it wasn't specifically modded to fight synthetic enemies. While Garrus and Wrex attacked the Prime, Shepard focused on the remaining crowd of Geth troopers that remained; four shots rang out, and four Geth fell in pieces. He heard Garrus curse as his assault rifle suffered the same fate, saw Wrex charge directly at the Prime and deliver a flurry of biotic attacks against it. Shepard clinically finished off the last of the standard Geth before turning his attention to the Prime, which was locked in a hand-to-hand struggle with Wrex as Garrus pinpointed accurate sniper-fire into its armour plating. As Wrex was thrown across the room, Shepard caught the Geth Prime firmly in its chest-plate, and managed to perfectly time a last-ditch Warp in an effort to slow the colossus down. The attack hit it, and caused the Geth Prime to stagger backwards into the control panel against the far wall.

The warning siren blared through the hangar, as the hulking mechanism of the blast doors shuddered to life. _"Initiating Emergency Shutdown of Blast Doors. Twenty seconds until release," _a male VI voice warned over the speakers. The Geth Prime's eye shattered as Garrus put a sniper bullet clean through its head, and an infuriated and blood-raging Wrex finished the job as he bolted towards the cornered unit, throwing attack after attack against it with all the fury his considerable biotic power could muster. The force of the impact tore the Geth's arm from its socket, which caused the remainder of its wires and programming to short circuit, tearing the synthetic hulk to pieces in a fiery explosion of wire and searing-hot metal. The control panel was caught in the blast and incinerated, and Shepard heard the telltale sound of wires cracking under the force of the heat.

_"User Alert: Failsafes for Emergency Shutdown are malfunctioning. Five seconds until blast doors are sealed."_

"That can't be good." Garrus dove for the cover of the stair railing as the blast doors shuddered to life, dropping like stones towards the level's floor. They connected with the anchors of the Geth cruiser, and after a brief pause sheered straight through the reinforced metal. The room was plunged into darkness as the blast doors cut off every facet of the Geth cruiser, including the power supply to the room. "Oh fuck, that's definitely not good!" Garrus shouted as they fumbled for the infrared vision on their omnitools and visors. The ground beneath their feet began to shake, and Shepard heard the sickening sound of tearing metal as the force of gravity began to do its work against the Geth cruiser. Without the upper anchors holding it in place, the vessel began to list dangerously away from the building, and they watched as one of the anchors from the floor below them tore through the floor as the giant ship broke away from the tower. The rending and tearing of metal reached a sonic peak, and then was replaced by absolute silence. It hung above them for several seconds, before they heard the faint echo of a massive explosion far below them, as the Geth cruiser made contact with the surface of Feros. The comm link on his omnitool hummed to life again, as the electromagnetic field that had been generated around the tower dissipated. The blue glow of electricity that had lined the walls vanished, no longer fed by its power source on the Geth ship. Holstering their weapons, Shepard, Garrus and Wrex continued further into the interior of the tower.

"Communication with the _Normandy_ is still down, but I'll try and patch the three of us back in. It shouldn't take too long." Garrus brought up a software hacking screen on his omnitool, and within moments the screen had switched from orange to green. "there we go; communication is back."

Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard spotted a fully functional VI station, one more sophisticated than the simple terminals they had found thus far. Hesitantly, he activated it, and waited until the wiry holographic outline of a suited human male flickered on in front of him.

_"Greetings, and welcome to ExoGeni Corporation's mainframe system on the Zhu's Hope Experimental Research Colony. I am EGVI-9, the Virtual Intelligence responsible for overseeing the distribution of data throughout Zhu's Hope and adjacent ExoGeni research fields. Please submit identification."_

Shepard had to have answers to the questions burning in the back of his mind. He jammed Lizbeth's ID card into EGVI's scanner. _"Welcome, Ms. Baynham. It has been nine hours, seven minutes and fourteen seconds since you previously accessed our databases. Please direct a search query."_

He didn't even have to think about it, and he knew immediately what to ask. "I need to know what SP37 is."

The VI paused for a moment, and then nodded its holographic frame. _"SP37, more commonly known as Species 37, is an organic life form native to Feros, thought to predate the presence of the Prothean Empire by hundreds of thousands of years. It consists of hundreds of kilometers of nerve tendrils spread beneath the surface of Feros. Species 37 is capable of telepathy and mind control, relying on spores released through the tendrils, and then inhaled by other organic life forms, in order to exert neurological and mental control over its thralls. The neurological control relies on pain and nerve inflammation to pacify potential hosts for the spores. Prothean writings refer to Species 37 as 'The One of Thoros', which most correctly translates as 'Thorian'."_

Was this what Saren was after – a sentient plant? Yet the symptoms of its neurological control closely mirrored those they had seen from the colonists of Zhu's Hope – especially Fai Dan and Lizbeth Baynham. "What can you tell me about the nature of ExoGeni's research into Species 37?"

_"A survey team discovered Species 37 nine months, fourteen days and seventeen hours ago, beneath the ruins of Prothean Tower 1437. The main settlement of Zhu's Hope was established as the site of a control group for experimental purposes, and within a month 88% of the colony's inhabitants were fully infected with the spores of Species 37. Additional subjects were brought to the ExoGeni Tower for experimentation, particularly to explore the effect of other neural chemicals on the control capable of being exerted by Species 37."_

The thought made Shepard sick to his stomach. He had known ExoGeni to be unscrupulous in their research practices, but live neuro experimentation on colonists? That crossed the line. "What did they find?"

_"The control group was often called upon to perform tasks for Species 37, with a frequency of once every 37.3 hours. These included concealment from external sources, the provision of food and water resources, and several other tasks. Neural decay among control group was minimal; research notes suggest that Species 37 views thralls as tools, and minimizes harm so long as they are useful. Those subjects exposed to other neural-altering chemicals were far more severely affected, with symptoms including psychosis, a complete breakdown of cognitive function, increased size of adrenal glands."_

Shepard cut the VI off, "why are the Geth after it?"

_"I am sorry, but I lack the required logic software necessary to make such inductions."_

Shepard turned to Garrus and Wrex, both of whom had listened with a mix of interest and concern to the VI's description of the Thorian. "We have to find this Thorian, and then we have to kill it. It's clearly a danger to the colonists-,"

The sound of a single gunshot interrupted his thoughts, causing Shepard to immediately switch back into being fully alert, his adrenaline shooting through his veins. The sound echoed through the winding corridor to their left, and the three of them followed its resonance into the dark confines of the tower. They could hear shouting now – muffled at first, its volume growing steadily as they inched forward. There were other voices, their tones frantic and desperate, pleading with some unseen figure for calm. Their search brought them to a set of blast doors, their reinforced titanium frames providing a strong barrier against outside intruders. Several Geth seemed to have thrown themselves against the doors, and the mangled synthetic corpses at their feet were a testament to the vanity of such a task. The muffled shouts were emanating from behind the barrier, but who they were was impossible to tell – scientists, or refugees, or colonists?

Shepard motioned to Garrus, who quickly began hacking through the security measures on the door, muttering to himself as he did so. "Simple dual-layer encryption of the lock…this is child's play. You'd think a company as smart as ExoGeni would do a better job; I'm not even a hacking specialist and I'm finding this easy."

The voices on the other side of the door were getting more frantic, their panic rising to a fever pitch.

"Get the fuck away from there; we have our orders! You're an ExoGeni employee, and you don't have any choice in the matter!"

"For the love of God, she's my daughter Ethan! She might still be alive out there, and you're willing to let her die to placate the people who are running this abomination? I won't do it!"

There was the sound of a pistol being drawn, and of a thermal clip being loaded into it. "Get the fuck away from that terminal! I have my orders, and you will not-," the voice fell silent as the soft 'click' of the door opening echoed through the room.

The door's encryption gave way and parted to reveal a chamber cloaked almost entirely in darkness. Even with his genetically-enhanced vision, Shepard could make out only the faintest outlines of human shapes, their outlines resplendent against the soft glow of the orange flares that dotted the room. He counted maybe a dozen people, all of them emaciated and trembling with fear. One of them came into his view, illuminated fully against the flares – a middle-aged woman, her eyes were hollow with exhaustion, her hair ragged and clinging to her face from the heat of the room. Wrex lit several additional flares, lighting up the vaulted room with their soft light. Though still dimly-lit, he could now make out the emblem of the ExoGeni Corporation on the chests and shoulders of everyone in the room. Slowly, Shepard beckoned them out of the shadows, urging them to move into the light so he could see them clearly.

The last two to step into view were clearly not happy to see him; both security guards, their weapons remained raised and pointed at him and Wrex, their laser-sights trained clearly on their chests. Shepard lowered his weapon in his hand, pointing its barrel towards the ground and raising his other hand to show that he was otherwise unarmed. "My name is John Shepard; I'm with the Alliance." That seemed to calm some of them down a bit, though it only perked the fear and anticipation of others, "and I mean you no harm." One of the guards began to lower his weapon, its sight no longer trained on Shepard – that was an encouraging sign. "We were told by Fai Dan that there were ExoGeni scientists trapped in the tower."

One of the men slowly stepped towards him, a light pistol in his hand pointed towards the floor. "Trapped? Yes, the Geth cut us off when they stormed the building." Shepard extended a hand, but the man did not return the gesture. "My name is Ethan Jeong; I'm the lead researcher for ExoGeni on Feros."

Shepard's mind immediately made the link between Jeong and the emails he had seen earlier. "Jeong…You're the supervisor for Project D37."

Jeong nodded, "if you've seen files referencing that, then you already know about The Thorian," he sneered, "I had hoped that no one who responded to the distress signal would find out about it, or that the Geth would kill them off. The Geth definitely wanted something to do with the Thorian," There was a strangled cry from one of the voices behind him, but he silenced them with a scathing look, "but no one here was supposed to know that. When you got communications back up, ExoGeni ordered us to purge this research base – personnel, files, the Thorian, everything."

"That's it?!" Shepard could feel his voice rising, his anger at the corporate hack standing in front of him palpable in the room. "You _experimented_ on other people," he practically spat the words as his voice quivered with rage, "you trapped your own researchers in this damned tower, you brought down Saren **and** the Geth on the colony and won't even tell them why, and your response is to try and cover your fucking tracks?!"

"Commander, my orders are orders, and you have no business interfering in ExoGeni corporate matters, no matter how much you'd like to."

Shepard brought his shotgun back up, pointing it directly at Jeong, "I'm a Spectre, and right now I'd like nothing more than to put a slug shot through your skull," he reloaded to emphasize his point, "but unlike you, I actually have a colony to save."

He turned to walk away, ready to be done with this tower and these infernal researchers, when Jeong's snide sarcasm cut back in. "I remember what happened last time you tried to save a colony, Commander Shepard. I bet you'd hoped that someone in the corporate world wouldn't remember your theatrics on Akuze. I seem to recall the entire colony being slaughtered – I'm sincerely hoping that that isn't the treatment that's in store for us-,"

White-hot rage welled up within Shepard, crashing through his mental defenses as if they were a wall of sand trying to hold back a tidal wave. Biotic power burned in his nerves, his discipline snapped by this scum's mocking of Akuze. He felt his fist connect – satisfyingly – with bone, felt as the biotic energy massed around his hand propelled Jeong full-force across the room. Jeong slumped against the far wall, his limp body collapsing against the rubble. Shepard's omnitool picked out two broken ribs, a broken jaw, and a broken collarbone; he'd live, but it would be painful. He turned back to see the colonists staring at him, wide-eyed in shock, and he urged for calm. "Wait here until I send up the all-clear. As for him," he glanced at Jeong's unconscious form, "I don't really care whether he comes with you or not. Keep your heads down until we've dealt with the Thorian."

He, Garrus and Wrex walked out of the room, their work finished and their target identified. "Garrus, prepare a report on ExoGeni's abuses for the Council – they'll want to hear about this. Once we've killed this thing, there is going to be hell to pay." He pulled up his comm-link, patching in the young ExoGeni scientist they had seen earlier. "Baynham, this is Commander Shepard. We've found the other researchers – they're further up in the tower just past what used to be the hangar. Get there and bunker down with them until we've destroyed the Tho-,"

He was interrupted by a message marked as 'urgent' on his comm link. "Shepard, this is Liara. Please tell me you're getting this!"

"What is it?"

"We've got a problem over here in the hangar. About five minutes ago the colonists started going nuts, and they're currently trying to claw their way in through the airlock."

"Are they likely to get through," Shepard asked, his voice quivering with anger at the machinations of ExoGeni in exposing the colonists to such damaging biochemical agents.

It was Kaidan who answered on the other end. "Doubtful. None of them seem to have heavy weapons, and the ablative armour on the _Normandy_ was designed for combat against fighters and frigates. We should be fine."

"Then bunker down and hang tight. We'll get back as soon as we can and try and stop them!"

They found the door where the forcefield had been unblocked, free for them to get back to the Mako by a shorter route than they had come by. Shepard didn't even wait for Garrus to fully get himself through the upper hatch before flooring the throttle and shooting the craft forward. The drive back was a blur, as Shepard's mind raced with questions: How had ExoGeni managed to keep the Thorian's existence a secret from anyone else in Alliance or Council space, and how had Saren come to know about it? What did Saren want with the Thorian?

The gate back to Zhu's Hope was blocked by a half-dozen hunched humanoids, their profile eerily similar to those they had found in the Cerberus base on Binthu. As they exited the Mako, one of the humanoid forms raised its head slightly towards them, before extending its clawed arms and raising itself to full height. Now that it wasn't behind a Cerberus-installed forcefield, Shepard could get a much better look at this thing. It stood roughly to shoulder-height on Shepard, with the reach of a lanky human or Turian. It was the jaws that shocked Shepard and made him realize that these were no longer human, and never had been. The sinews of the jawline were devoid of any skin, and the jawbones were extended further sideways than on a human. The inner lining of the jaw was serrated, and opened in a primal scream as the mysterious horror crept towards them, its claws extended fully forward and ready to tear through Shepard's flesh.

He reacted instinctively, his shotgun carving through the creatures in front of him. Wrex killed two of them with a particularly violent biotic throw, and Garrus finished the rest with a quick draw of his assault rifle, but not before one of them nearly succeeded in getting its clawed hands on him. Panting from the force of adrenaline coursing through him, he cursed to himself as Shepard bent down to examine the corpse, "what the hell was that thing?"

"Not sure, but it looks practically identical to the creatures that we found on Binthu." Shepard turned the corpse face-up, exposing its still-open jaws and the acidic blood dripping from the wound in its neck. "If I had to guess, I'd say that they're from the Thorian. They definitely match the descriptions in the earlier records – heightened adrenal glands, psychosis, the whole set."

"So are they former colonists, or simply spawn of the Thorian itself?"

"It's difficult to say, but my guess is the latter," Shepard replied as his omnitool did preliminary scans of the creature, noting its bone and nerve-system structure. "The bones are too far apart from the human anatomy to be a perfect transition, but you can never be sure."

Wrex's hearing perked up at the sound of another of the primal screams from beyond the gate. "There's definitely more of them inside, and possibly colonists as well. What's the plan?"

"Set your grenades to concussive fragmentation. If they're clearly recognizable as colonists, use those – they're being controlled by the Thorian, but they're still human. If these things," he gestured with his shotgun to the corpses on the floor, "come at you, kill them." Garrus nodded, and with his free hand punched the controls for the gate to Zhu's Hope wide open.

It took them a matter of seconds to cross the distance between the open gate and the barricades on the far side, dodging wild and inaccurate pistol-fire from the brainwashed colonists as they did so. As Garrus dove behind a large slab of rock in the middle of the hangar, he lobbed a pair of grenades towards the barricades. The first bounced off the durasteel frame and rolled into a group of the Thorian creepers, its concussive fragments tearing through the soft flesh and cartilage of the creatures; the second successfully cleared the barricade, and sent the colonists unconscious and sprawling when it detonated. Two more were waiting for them in the hallway leading towards Zhu's Hope, and Wrex quickly dealt with the pair by knocking them out with a single blow from his heavy shotgun that struck both of them across the jaw. In the same, surprisingly fluid motion, he turned and biotically lifted five of the Thorian spawn skyward, before Shepard sent them flying with a deftly-placed throw.

They found the entrance corridor to Zhu's Hope blocked by a wall of opposing fire, as nearly a dozen infected colonists poured gunfire at them in a vain effort to protect the Thorian from the _Normandy_'s crew. Three lobbed stun grenades dealt with them, while the butt-end of Shepard's shotgun knocked out the few stragglers who had managed to escape the blast radius of the grenades. The bulk of their long-range opponents dealt with, they crossed the catwalk with relative ease, the few Thorian creepers in their way quickly falling victim to the crossfire of assault-rifle and shotgun bullets that cracked through the air. Shepard's gaze was drawn to the crane controls on the far side of the courtyard from him. They had seemed so unassuming before, as had the large durasteel rods and chains linked down to one of the large cargo storage containers placed beside the largest of the prefab shelters. That could be the only place where the Thorian was located, and he sprinted for the controls with superhuman speed, as he shot, threw, punched, and warped into oblivion anything that stood in his way. Behind him, Garrus and Wrex finished off the last of the creepers as they struggled to keep up with him. Their grisly work finished, the three of them holstered their weapons and surveyed the damage. None of the colonists seemed to have been killed – their life signs were still humming actively on Garrus's scanners, but the acidic blood of dozens of the Thorian creepers was slowly beginning to eat away at the floor beneath them.

Shepard activated the crane console, and watched as one of the large storage crates rotated skyward, revealing a narrow corridor of stairs that sloped downward. The walls were the smoothest concrete, as if they had been carefully polished time and time again by some unseen workforce. He was about to take the first step when the hair on the back of his neck began to stand on end; someone else was here. In the blink of an eye he was turned with his pistol drawn, and he watched with steady aim as Fai Dan staggered out from behind one of the prefab shelters, a Predator II pistol clutched in his hand.

The leader of the Zhu's Hope colony took slow, deliberate and agonized steps towards Shepard, his jaw clenched and his eyes focussed on the ground. "I tried to fight it but…it gets in your head. You can't even begin to imagine the pain," he took a step closer, as Shepard put both of his hands firmly on the hilt of his handgun, the laser-pointer lined up with Fai Dan's chest. "I was supposed to be a leader," Fai Dan gazed, crestfallen, at Shepard and Garrus, "these people…trusted me." The man's gun arm shot upward, pointing his pistol at Shepard with a violently trembling hand. Shepard took one hand off his gun and began to stir the beginnings of his barrier, ready for anything that might happen next. "It wants me to stop you but-," the leader of the colony managed to grasp his wrist with his free hand, forcing the pistol back up, and towards his own jaw, "I won't." In his final moment, a mix of pain and concentration flooded across his face, as he brought the gun to his temple, "I won't!" The shot rang out across the settlement, as Fai Dan's broken body crumpled to the ground.

Ordinarily, Shepard would have taken time to attend to the man's corpse, but they had no idea what advantage Saren might have gained from accessing the Thorian hours before them, and they didn't want to push their luck. Shepard was the first one into the descending passageway, with Wrex close behind him as Garrus covered their flank. Before long, the stairs gave way to a sheer drop of six feet, a series of narrow cuts into the wall their only option for returning to the surface. Several flares still burned, their white sparks evidence that they were not the only ones down here recently. The chamber went on in utter darkness for a hundred metres, barely illuminated by the flares, forcing the three of them to stumble and trip over the large piles of rubble that had fallen from the ceiling thousands of years earlier.

Garrus moved excitedly towards the growing veil of light that stood in front of them, ready to confront whatever was waiting for them. "Ok, so we just need to find this Thorian and determine what it…what it…" his confidence ebbed as they stared with awe at the monstrosity in front of them, "this was not covered in my training manuals."

The Thorian was unlike anything they had ever seen, and it would have been a stretch to term it a 'plant'. Its body was huge, occupying the entire cavernous chamber they stood in, tendrils snaking into every passageway and corridor that lined the domed vault. The core of the Thorian was a bundle of nerves, probably twenty or thirty feet across and high, that sat suspended from the tendrils, its flesh pulsating with energy and power. The head of the creature extended downward in front of them, three compound eyes staring back at them hollowly – unmoving, yet all-seeing – and Shepard felt his spine shrink somewhat as the depth of its eyes seemed to close in around them. A mass of tentacles sloped downwards from the skull, as its acidic saliva dripped slowly to the ground in front of them, collecting in an ever-deepening chasm that burned its way through the ground.

Shepard's gaze shifted between the snaking tendrils that held the Thorian in place, to the bloated glob of flesh and nerve that was its body, and back to the swaying tentacles in front of him. "Yeah…we're going to need bigger guns," he observed nonchalantly.

The tentacles began to move upward, parting as the volume of acid pouring the Thorian's jaws increased dramatically. The entire body of the Thorian began to convulse as the head gyrated back and forth to part the tentacles. As they lifted, a body began to emerge from the creature's jaws – first the feet, then the slim legs, and then the torso and head of an Asari commando, her skin coated an odd shade of green as she menacingly rose in front of them, her acid-green eyes wide open and staring at them frighteningly.

"Invader," the Asari spoke in an odd voice – a blend of her own and the dark and threatening tones of the Thorian's projected consciousness, "your every step is a transgression." She took one step towards them, "A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, worthy only to dig or decompose." A second step, "I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for the other that passed this way soon before you. You are within, and before, the Thorian. It demands that you be in awe!"

Shepard took a step towards the strange Asari, his hands open and facing forward, but ready to grab a weapon or throw a biotic attack instantly should the need arise. "You gave something to Saren – something that I need."

"The one that passed this way soon before you – Saren, he called himself – sought knowledge of those that came before, who sparked the minds and the life of this ancient ground. The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in many cycles," the Asari seemed to pause, searching for the right word, "…trades…were made." The Asari's eyes flared in anger, her twinned voices rising in fury, "Then the Cold Ones began killing the flesh – flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given, struck down by those that the Old Growth could not feel! The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies; it will listen no more!"

Shepard drew his weapon, as Wrex and Garrus did the same behind him. "Flesh…is that all they are to you?!" His fist tightened behind him, as he felt the pulsing of biotic power flow through his veins yet again. "You _infected_ the colonists that live above you; you forced them to do your bidding, tormented them with pain when they tried to resist. You are beyond reason, and you are beyond saving."

The Asari leap at him, her grip surprisingly strong as her hands wrapped around his throat. Shepard struggled mightily against her as his head was slammed back into the column behind him; his feet thrashed wildly as he felt the air being choked out of him. To his right, Garrus and Wrex were now surrounded by more of the Thorian creepers, and they were rapidly being overwhelmed as they tried in vain to stem the oncoming tide of claws, teeth and acid that was forming around them. He brought his hands to the wrists of the Asari, and tried using his biotics to overpower her and break her grip. She responded by flaring her own biotics, and his hands were forced back as her considerable power – amplified by the Thorian's own tremendous power – coursed through her. In a swift motion, he brought his right foot into contact with her chest, satisfied that he would get respite as he heard the distinct sound of bones cracking beneath the force of the blow. The Asari seemed to pay no attention, and ignored the pain as her grip around his throat tightened even more. He managed to get one of his feet around the Asari's legs, and brought them both crashing to the ground as he tripped her, but she still remained firmly in control. His vision began to blur as his lungs struggled for oxygen, and he felt himself begin to lose consciousness.

The shotgun blast caught the Asari by surprise, and she was thrown sideways into the looming chasm below the Thorian, her armour a shredded heap around her. Shepard turned to see Wrex, who had utilized a momentary lapse in the onslaught of creepers to dispatch Shepard's assailant. The Krogan battlemaster met his gaze with a quick nod and a knowing look, before returning to help Garrus with the last of the creepers. When their work was finished, the Turian helped Shepard to his feet, and caught him as he immediately fell forward, the feeling of oxygen returning to his veins so powerful that it forced him to his knees. After a moment of respite, he pulled himself back up, a mix of adrenaline and rage willing him forward.

They took the only exit they could, and found a corridor dotted with squatted and dormant Thorian creepers. Five metres from them, one of the nerve tendrils of the Thorian extended outward from the main shell of the body and anchored itself into the wall, culminating in a red and fleshy node of nerve bundles and blood vessels. It made for a tempting target, and Shepard wasted no time in sending a slug shot directly into the heart of its tendons, tearing it apart in an explosion of sinew and acid. The Thorian's reaction was immediate, and its screams shook the hollow and made Shepard's ears ring. The creepers began to awaken all around them, their primal senses focused intently on these intruders that had harmed the Old Growth. As they attacked, it became abundantly clear that the Thorian exerted direct synaptic control over these thralls; the pain it was experiencing dulled its senses, and their attacks were disorganized, incoherent, and thus easy for three battle-hardened commandos to deal with.

"Did we kill it?" Garrus seemed ready for the Thorian to drop from its tendrils and collapse into the hollow.

"Nope," Wrex's analysis was harsh and to-the-point, "but we definitely pissed it off."

The flash of biotic power caught Shepard's attention, and he turned to see another Asari charging towards him – identical in every respect to the one that had nearly killed him only minutes earlier. Garrus moved to evade, but was caught in a stasis bubble and temporarily paralyzed. Wrex charged this new foe, as Shepard turned to fight another wave of creepers that were slowly clambering up onto the platform. His biotics were sluggish and weaker than usual, and the exhaustion of fighting for nearly three hours was draining his reserves of adrenaline fast. His shotgun carved through the last of the Thorian creepers, and Garrus lapsed out of the stasis bubble and immediately put two shots clean through the Asari's shoulder.

They found another of the nerve tendrils in the next corridor, and wasted no time in reducing it to the same state as the previous one they had found. Another wave of creepers and Asari greeted them, and Shepard deftly threw the green Asari over the railing of the corridor and into the yawning chasm below them, her screams fading as she plunged deeper and deeper into the bowels of Feros. Garrus narrowly avoided the swinging claws of one of the creepers, but the front of his armour was eviscerated when the talons pried the upper protective plates off; he managed to beat the creeper into a bloody pulp before any further damage could be done.

Too exhausted to use his biotics, Shepard drew his pistol with his left hand, using a swinging motion with his right to re-arm his shotgun after each round. Wrex had begun the process of transferring over to his secondary nervous system, and he fought forward against the onslaught of Thorian thralls with a blinding rage, oblivious to any pain that might be inflicted on him as he charged headlong into the remaining creepers. In the midst of the chaos, Wrex managed to toss his pistol to Shepard, who accepted eagerly as he holstered his shotgun. He fought like a man possessed, consuming every last bit of energy and adrenaline that he had as he fired in all directions with a mix of precision and desperation. The next nerve tendril fell just as easily as the last, and elicited another scream of fury and pain from the Thorian.

"That wasn't a 'pissed off bioweapon' sort of scream," Garrus shouted over the din of combat, "that was the 'I'm genuinely in a lot of pain' kind of scream." He ducked backwards as another of the thralls swung its clawed hand at him, and he responded by filling its face with assault rifle fire, "only a few more hits and it'll be begging for mercy!"

Another of the Asari threw herself at Shepard, her biotics flared and gunning for him. He was so tired that he barely managed to erect his barrier in time, and he still only managed to deflect part of the blow, as he felt the Asari's warp cut across his face and leave a trail of blood-red scratches across it. Wrex's pistol turned out to be heavily modded to penetrate biotic barriers, and it made short work of the Asari and the dozen creepers surrounding her. They came to another of the rooms containing a nerve tendril, and the three of them poured every ounce of firepower they had into it – all their adrenaline, stress, and rage at the twisted monstrosity that confronted them. By the time they were done, the node was barely recognizable, so complete and total was their destruction of it.

The Thorian emitted a primal roar with every iota of its conscience, enraged by the sheer agony it was now enduring at the hands of these offworlders. The few creepers that remained around them froze, and their very veins seemed to boil as the Thorian's agony was mentally transmitted to them. The remaining tendrils of the massive creature began to slip from their moorings, and the echoes of the Thorian's screams reverberated through the hollow as its enormous girth began to crash down around them. Shepard heard the distinct snapping sound as one tendril, then another, splintered loose from its moorings. The Thorian fell to earth with a sickening crash that sent tremors through the hollow, its dying screams echoing in Shepard's mind as its thrashings slowly subsided.

Shepard looked around to take in his suddenly-changed surroundings. Garrus was on all fours, panting from exhaustion as the outer plating of his armour slowly burned from the effects of the acid. The unnatural haze had begun to dim from Wrex's vision, as he slowly came down from his pain-induced high. His reptilian features surveyed the carnage around them, a whiff of satisfaction in his expression as he peered over the edge to view the remains of the Thorian. "You sure know how to pick your fights Shepard."

He was about to respond when the wall behind him began to writhe and shapeshift, revealing a small nook in the wall that had previously been covered by camouflaged Thorian membrane. A body began to descend from the membrane, its nimble feet and torso matching that of the Asari warriors that the Thorian had unleashed against them. Her skin, however, was the dark purple more common amongst Asari, and her movements seemed less deliberate and direct than those of the Thorian's Asari. She fell to all fours, gasping for air as her eyes adjusted to the brightness. When she finally got to her feet, he saw that her eyes were also different. Where the other Asari's eyes had seemed glazed over, their irises faded to nothing under the thrall of the Thorian, this Asari looked back at him with intense green eyes.

She seemed nervous and uncomfortable on her feet, as she took in her surroundings to comprehend what had happened. "I'm-, I'm free." She turned to face Shepard, Garrus and Wrex, "I-, I suppose I should thank you for releasing me."

"Who are you?" Shepard lowered his guard and holstered both his pistols, though Wrex kept his shotgun firmly aimed at the Asari. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I am fine – or at least I will be, in time." Her eyes narrowed, and the spark of recognition dawned in them, "you, however, I recognize, Commander Shepard. You match Saren's depiction of you, but there's more to you than that – you look the part of the man trying to stop Saren. My name is Shiala, and I serve-, or rather, I served Matriarch Benezia. When she allied herself with Saren, so did my war-sisters and I."

"We stopped Benezia on Noveria, where she was trying to find the Mu Relay."

Shiala nodded, "then you know that she joined him to try and guide him down a gentler path, and that she was eventually indoctrinated by him." Her breathing moved faster, as her own memories of the process flooded back to her. "Like Benezia, I thought I was strong enough to resist, but when Saren brought me here…I was a willing slave; my mind was no longer my own. When he needed my biotics to communicate with the Old Growth and learn its secrets, I did so without hesitation." Shiala hung her head in shame and sadness, "I was an item of trade between Saren and the Thorian. Once he had what he needed, he betrayed us both, and tried to destroy all evidence of the Thorian – wipe it from the narrative of history, in case you followed after him."

"Why did he bring you here? What did he hope to gain from the Thorian?"

"Saren knows that you are looking for the Conduit, and he knows that you are tracking his footsteps. Your defeat of Benezia on Noveria frightened him – he did not foresee you gaining such an advantage. He knows what you're looking for, and he tried to destroy the Thorian to prevent you from accessing the Cipher."

"The what?" That wasn't an object that Shepard had ever heard of.

"The Beacon on Eden Prime gave you visions of the downfall of the Prothean Empire," Shepard nodded, "but they are…unclear, confusing." A thin smile of understanding crossed Shiala's lips, "you won't say it, but I can see in your eyes that I'm correct. The message was only to make sense to a Prothean mind."

"Then what does the Cipher do?"

"In order to understand the Beacon, you have to think like a Prothean. You need to understand their culture, their history, even their very existence. The Thorian was here long before the Protheans – its existence stretches back hundreds of thousands of years. When they built their great cities here, it studied them, watched them. When they died, it consumed them, and their essence became a part of it." When all she got from Shepard and Garrus were blank stares, she backtracked. "Even with five centuries of study, you couldn't understand a Prothean mind. It would be like trying to describe colour to someone who is blind – they are two incompatible planes of understanding. The Thorian transcended this barrier, and gained an understanding of their essence when it consumed them; this is the Cipher. It was transferred from the Thorian's mind to mine, and then onto Saren's, and it gives him the understanding of a Prothean mind necessary to comprehend the Beacon. It cannot be taught; it simply exists."

Shepard was crestfallen. The one key they had to unlocking the puzzle of the Beacon was lost to them. "Dammit! We just killed the one creature that could have let us understand the Beacon."

"Not the only creature," Shiala's smirk seemed as wide as the room, "I still have the essence of the Cipher in my mind. I could transfer the Cipher to your mind as I did to Saren's."

It was desperate, it was crazy, it was preposterous, but it was the only option they had. Shepard nodded his agreement, and Shiala stepped slowly towards him, her green eyes focused intently on his face. "Very well; I don't suppose that you've linked minds before?" He shook his head, "then try to relax commander. Take slow, deep breaths, and let go of your physical shell. Reach out to grasp the threads that bind us – one to another." She advanced rapidly toward him, stopping when her head was only a foot from his. "Every action sends ripples across the galaxy; every idea must touch another mind to live. Each emotion must mark another's spirit. We are all connected – every living being united in a single, glorious whole." She closed her eyes, lowering her head slightly until his eyes were level with the curves of her head-crests. "Open yourself to the universe, Commander Shepard, and embrace eternity."

They were the vaguest, most nondescript instructions Shepard had ever heard, but when her eyes opened to reveal solid black orbs, he felt as he lost track of the world around him. The concrete walls of his surroundings gave way to a cacophony of noise and light, as his senses were bombarded with information and understanding. The images of the vision flashed through his mind, burning their indelible mark on his soul. Yet now they were clearer, slower, more varied and detailed. The chaos of the Prothean's destruction gave way to a blinding light, which slowly retracted to reveal a single star system, its planets marked in distinct patterns of blue against the fiery-red background noise that assaulted his vision. Then the blackness and silence returned, punctured only by the mechanical shriek of his perceived foe. The image of a _Sovereign_-like ship flashed before him, and then was gone.

Shiala stepped back, her work completed. "I have given you the Cipher, as I gave it to Saren. In doing so, our minds connected, and each of us had access to the other's memories and thoughts, if only for a moment."

Even though he was firmly back in reality, the images were still swirling through his mind at full speed. Even if he now understood Prothean culture and society, he still couldn't make any sense of the images assaulting his brain. Shiala seemed to sense this, "you still cannot make sense of the images – neither could I. I suspect that there is someone on your ship who can," she gave a wry smile again, "and I imagine that you will be very…_eager_ for her to do so." The knowing tones practically screamed out of her words, and Shepard felt himself blushing furiously as Garrus suppressed a stifled laugh. "Does she know?" Shepard nodded, "then you and she are very lucky indeed, Commander Shepard." Her smile faded, and she shifted awkwardly in place, "but what are you going to do with me, Commander? If you don't see fit to kill me, I'd like to stay and help Zhu's Hope recover from the attack."

That seemed best to Shepard, and he nodded his agreement before Shiala turned to go. "Thank-you Commander. I promise you that you won't regret this."

As they left the smouldering ruins of the Thorian's lair, Garrus turned to Shepard with a wide smirk on his face. "I didn't want to pry, but I figured there was something between you and-,"

Shepard cut him off, "don't. say. a word."

**Captain's Cabin, SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Feros, Theseus System – one hour later**

Shepard disconnected the link to the Citadel Council, his mission reports filed with both the Spectres and the Alliance. Zhu's Hope would endure, their resolve hardened by the destruction of the creature that had enslaved them, and their boldness against ExoGeni heightened now that the company's hold on them was broken. The Council had expressed admonishment at ExoGeni's attempts to hide their data on the Thorian, while Valern – ever the scientist – had expressed regret that they Thorian hadn't survived for study; Shepard had sternly reminded him that the creature had a habit of infecting and enthralling anything organic that came near it. Sparatus seemed impressed with Shepard's speed in responding to the colony's distress signal – Alliance vessels were only now beginning to coalesce at the Attican Beta relay – but noted with his usual disdain that Shepard 'would do anything to help a _human_ colony', that last part almost sneered.

He could have argued the point, but the reality was that Shepard was so tired that he didn't feel like bothering. Impatient with their continued intransigence on the issue of the Reapers, he could only hope that they'd come around to his line of thinking before long.

Garrus's injuries from the acid had proven far worse than he had initially thought; a thick burned scar now crossed the centre of his chest, and the front plating of his armour was completely fried – shield interface disabled, omnidefenses down and useless, and even the medigel conduits damaged beyond repair. It would take several days to repair, even with Adams, Tali, Kaidan and Garrus working feverishly to get him back up to fighting capacity.

A soft knock at his door betrayed Liara's presence, and she walked in without saying a word. Like the rest of the _Normandy_'s crew, she had felt the strain of living in lockdown for the past three hours, as the frantic and brainwashed colonists desperately tried to claw their way into the _Normandy_ to stop Shepard from harming the Thorian. The crew had huddled in the command centre and CIC, their senses alert for the slightest change in the sound of scraping against the hull that went on for hours. It would have driven a civilian mad to be stuck in such a confined space under such conditions, and the toll showed in the harrowed and exhausted faces of the _Normandy_'s crew. Liara was no different, and though she had calmed since then the lines of worry and anxiety were still etched on her face – worry for their own fate on the ship, worry for Shepard as he navigated the confines of Feros.

"Shepard, you wanted to see me?" after the nightmare on Feros, her mere proximity seemed to sooth Shepard's exhaustion and stress.

Shepard nodded, "when Shiala gave me the Cipher, there was still a lot of the vision that didn't make any sense." Liara stood completely still, but the slight spark in her eyes suggested that she knew where this conversation was going. "I don't know enough about the Protheans to understand all of the references, even if it gave me an understanding of their society and language on a subconscious level." He breathed a sigh of agitation, detesting the fact that the Cipher seemed so useless to him. "I need your help, Liara. You're the Prothean expert; I need your help to decode the Cipher."

Liara seemed eager to help, "what do you need me to do?"

"Shiala explained that the Cipher cannot be described or taught; it has to be understood or absorbed. She linked her mind to mine to transfer the information-,"

Liara's eyes widened in shock, and she took a half-step backwards, "wait, she _melded_ with you?"

"If that's the term for it, then she did," he looked at her curiously as her eyes continued to widen, "is that common?"

She blushed a little bit, her voice breaking slightly as she explained herself, "I suppose so, in that all Asari can do it. It's part of how we reproduce – we attune our nervous system to another's and use it to randomize genetic sequences, which we then isolate and use to ensure host viability when…" she trailed off as Shepard stared at her blankly, his mind rapidly losing track, "sorry, I was starting to ramble again. It's commonly part of the mating process." Now it was Shepard's turn to widen his eyes; had Shiala just mated with him back on Feros? Liara seemed to anticipate the thoughts going through his head and rushed to diffuse the tension, "but it can also be used at a more basic, less intimate level to exchange memories and information." She was blushing furiously now, as the words struggled to form in her throat, "if you want, I could link our minds so that you could transfer the Cipher to me, and see if I can make sense of it."

She held her breath in anticipation, and almost breathed a sigh of relief and euphoria when Shepard nodded almost immediately. "Do it."

She inched herself closer to him until her face was only inches from his. When he inhaled, she was so close that he could sense the soft aroma of Elysium orchids that clung to her skin, see every nuance in her blue eyes, and almost feel the electricity of every frantic and nervous impulse she made – a glance sideways here, a flush in her skin there. She bowed her head slightly, and her eyes closed in concentration as she prepared for the joining of their minds. He felt himself do the same, letting go of the stress and worry and exhaustion that had clouded his mind in the hours on Feros. He felt her take his hands in her own, as her breathing settled into focused concentration.

"Shepard, embrace eternity!" Her eyes opened to reveal bottomless black orbs. The world went dark as the room around him shifted out of focus. In an instant, he was returned to the world of the Prothean vision, as the images of chaos and destruction crashed against his mind again. After the same experience an hour earlier, it was almost too much to bear, but for Liara's sake he doubled down, focusing on keeping the connection intact. This time, the connection seemed to go deeper, and he found himself surrounded by glimpses of Liara's memory – the death of her mother, seeing the chaos of Therum through her eyes; it was overwhelming in its power. As her mind took in the data and knowledge of the cipher, he could feel her consciousness edging through the recesses of his memories – Akuze, the argument with his father, N7 training, Officer's School. He hadn't intended for her to see those, but the cascade of information proved uncontrollable, as the last terrifying imprints of the vision flashed before both their minds, and then was swallowed by the silence.

The jolt back to reality was intense, and Shepard opened his eyes to see Liara, concentration and exertion etched into every line of her face. Her eyes remained closed, her breathing nearly nonexistent. She opened her eyes in a flash, and she breathed in huge, rapid gasps of air as she readjusted to the dark, quiet interior of the _Normandy_. The black orbs were gone, replaced by the familiar beautiful blue eyes that stared firmly forward in awe.

"Goddess," her breathing was ragged, her words hollow and rasped, "that was…unbelievable. I didn't think the visions would be so…intense." She looked at Shepard with admiration clear in her eyes, "to have absorbed that much information…I don't even know what to say."

Shepard found himself exhausted as well; linking his mind with Liara's had proven far more draining than when Shiala had given him the Cipher. He wasn't sure whether it was a result of the information being passed a second time, or whether it reflected a greater desire on their parts to exchange consciousness. "Did you manage to get anything from that?"

"Bits and pieces…I-, I think it's some sort of warning, spread out across the Prothean Empire to warn about the Reapers. There's something else too…it hints at what The Conduit is, but there are still pieces of the message that are missing, as if the Beacon was damaged prematurely."

"If we found another of them, do you think we could fill in the gaps?"

Liara nodded, "assuming that the message was sent out across a Beacon network, then yes – even fragments from other damaged beacons would probably be enough."

"Saren will be in the same situation – we'll have to tail his moves closely. If he picks up on one, we'll be right behind him." He felt light-headed, as the rapid flow of blood back into his head played havoc with his balance. "Good Lord, that exchange of the Cipher was…intense. I don't think I've ever been this exhausted." He paused, remembering what Liara had said earlier, "and you said that this was not even the full extent of the ability?"

"Goddess no; that was the most basic of mind melds – we simply shared memories. A true melding typically occurs on a much…deeper level." She blushed slightly, and Shepard distinctly heard a slight catch in her voice as she continued, "it is an act of trust, of intimacy, and of love."

His curiosity was piqued, and he felt himself wanting to know more, "what happens during a true melding?"

Liara leaned closer to him, and Shepard became acutely conscious of her eyes seemingly boring into him. "Two become one – two minds intertwine in their entirety. Two bodies link – an Asari consciously attunes her nervous system to her bondmate's, and two souls become one. It is the closest to true, genuine union that two people can get." He could see his eyes, reflected in her own, with a sense of awe and wonder in them.

"That sounds…incredible." She was so close that he could feel her breath against his face. Her own eyes sparkled with energy, and there was no hint of fear in them – only longing.

"I have never experienced it, but I have heard…similar." They were nearly touching now, and he could feel the intensity of emotion radiating from her, as she arced her lithe frame against his.

He didn't know how it happened, but moments later her lips were on his, her hands clutching at his with an intensity and eagerness that he didn't know she possessed. Shepard forgot the world, forgot Saren, forgot the Geth, the Council, the crew, and for too-brief a moment he was only aware of Liara – the sweet and electrifying taste of her lips against his, the play of the muscles in her abdomen, her scent and her aura. He could get lost in this, a recluse to the world, find comfort and solace only with her. He closed his eyes, willing himself to forget the world and focus only on the beautiful Asari Maiden now locked in his embrace.

And then it was over, just as quickly as it had begun, as his jaw felt the cool rush of air once freed from their confinement to hers. Liara was still looking at him, but the longing in her eyes had been replaced by a sense of…was it embarrassment? "I'm-, I'm sorry Shepard. We need to focus – keep our eyes on the mission and nothing else." Shepard made to respond, but before he knew it she was slipping back out the door and into the Mess Hall.

Shepard slumped against the wall of his cabin, dejected and exhausted. He _wanted_ her, craved her in a manner that he found frightening. The moment when their minds had linked, when he had briefly had access to the well of her memories and emotions, had been one of the most profound experiences of his life. He could still feel her hands enclosed in his, her lips pressed against his, and the feel of her slender body arced against his own. His blood burned with the fire of passion, and through his exhaustion at hours of fighting, as well as two mind links in one day, he could still feel his body positively vibrating with energy. His body begged for rest, but when he collapsed on his bed he found himself unable to sleep, lest the tantalizing memories of Liara's kiss torment him through the night.

**Science Lab – SSV **_**Normandy**_

As mentally tired as Shepard was, it was nothing compared to the anguish and exhaustion that Liara felt. She had never linked minds before, and like most Asari she found her first experience of it extraordinarily intense yet physically and emotionally draining. Her whole body had been shaking with stress when she broke away from Shepard's embrace, a nervous wreck of emotion and excitement. For all that Shepard had told her about the Prothean Beacon, about Akuze, or N7, or his family, it had been nothing compared to the experience of _living_ it. She had seen his memories of the massacre through his eyes, as if she had been there herself. She had beheld millennia of Prothean society and culture in a matter of nanoseconds.

She had found Shepard to be a compelling man, someone that she was drawn to on a physical and emotional level. But to behold his being in such a raw form – no walls or barriers between them – had been…overwhelming. She had seen Shepard uninhibited, and she loved what she saw. To view his mind was to understand his drive, his determination, and the impact of the pain and loss he had felt in the past decade.

She knew he wanted her, and she knew that she felt the same in return, but the thought frightened her still. It wasn't her place to distract him from the goal of Saren, to turn his gaze to something that it shouldn't be on. And so she delayed, knowing that what she wanted with every fibre of her being could not happen now, but praying to the Goddess that their day would come.

Until that time, it was all she could do to hope.


	11. Chapter 10: The Hardest of Choices

**And we're back! Progress continues - Chapter 12 is nearly done in my draft, sitting at 126,000 words. And don't worry - under no circumstances will this work stagnate to the point of death - where my output in the summer was 2,000 words/day, during a brutal fall semester it's slowed to 500 words/day or less. And this is by no means the end - I have big plans for Part Two of the saga which are beginning to coalesce nicely.**

**Another note - there are certain points in the next few chapters that have specific musical inspiration which (in my view, at least) goes well with what I've written. The specific section in this chapter begins with "Ashley saw Lee fall to the ground" SPOILER ALERT immediately following the confrontation with Saren. The link is question is on SoundCloud , and you add "/matthewlarkin/larkin-domine-probasti" into the URL.  
**

**Enjoy!**

_**Chapter 10: The Hardest of Choices**_

"Killing is making a choice, you choose between one life or the other. You have _nothing_ to threaten me with! Nothing to do with all your strength! But don't worry, I'm gonna tell you where they are! Both of them, and that's the point. You'll have to choose."

**Command Room – SSV **_**Normandy**_**, Hercules System, Attican Beta Cluster**

The communications terminal in the command room flashed to life as the Citadel Council strove to contact Shepard over the most encrypted of Spectre communications channels. The signal rang throughout the _Normandy_, and within minutes Shepard was barreling up the stairwell of the frigate to the command room, frantically pulling his Alliance uniform over his head as he did so.

The feed from the Citadel flickered on, revealing the Salarian and Turian councillors standing at their pedestals in the Citadel tower.

"Shepard," Councillor Valern began, "we've just received contact from one of our Salarian STG Teams in the Traverse."

The Special Tasks Groups – the Salarian infiltration regiment and inspiration for the Spectres – were known for operating well outside of Union jurisdiction, but Shepard had never heard of them doing so on the Council's behalf, and certainly not out in the Terminus systems. "What's an STG team doing out in the Traverse?"

"Spectres aren't our only tool for keeping tabs on potential enemies of the Council," Sparatus noted, the tone in his voice suggesting that Shepard should have known this already. "We use STG teams in the Traverse to monitor the Terminus systems – they're less high-profile than Spectres, and there's more coordination between groups than with the Spectres."

"What was the contact about?"

"They've found Saren, or at least one of his outposts. It's located on Virmire – a planet well outside of Council jurisdiction. It was broadcast over top-level emergency channels, and they're requesting reinforcements; they took heavy losses in their first assault on the base, and can't get either evac or another attack going."

"I'll investigate as quickly as I can," Shepard replied, his omnitool already punching in the orders to the bridge. In seconds, he had a response from Joker and Pressly, as the navigator began to plot their relay jump to the system. It was on the very border of the Terminus, and according to the data now streaming to his omnitool colonization attempts had been made on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, the political situation in the Terminus – an endless turf war between rival cartels, gangs and mercenary groups – made negotiations unfeasible, and blunt-force colonization too risky.

"They requested substantial reinforcements, but the Council is not willing to provoke a full-scale war with any of the cartels in the area – one of our top Terminus Spectre operatives informed us that the Attican Fists and the Skylian Shadows gangs are in the midst of a full-scale war, and that it would be ill-advised for us to intervene in the middle of it. The _Normandy_ can get in fast and quiet, and extract the STG team." Valern glanced across at Sparatus, then at the empty seat of Tevos, "good luck Shepard."

The hologram darkened as Joker's voice rang in over the comms system. "We'll be probably six hours to Virmire, assuming optimal Relay traffic."

"Garrus, will the Mako be ready in time for that?"

There was a brief pause before the Turian's observations echoed through the command room, "should be. Tali and I are just reoptimizing the targeting metrics – they got thrown off slightly on Binthu by the gravity. Should be back to optimal pace inside of four hours."

"Excellent. Tell everyone on the engineering deck that I want a full command meeting one hour prior to our arrival on Virmire."

"You got it."

Back on the crew deck, Shepard found the Mess Hall table occupied entirely by Wrex, who was hurriedly polishing an ornate and ancient set of Krogan battle-armour. Originally belonging to his ancestors during the Krogan Rebellions, the ceremonial set had been confiscated after the Genophage, before eventually ending up in the hands of a Turian smuggler and artifact scavenger. They had stumbled across the man's base of operations while discharging their drive cores shortly after Feros, and Wrex had been eager to regain the armour for the sake of his ancestors. Shepard had led a team groundside and recovered the armour, and had earned a great deal of respect from Wrex for the act.

The way Wrex seemed to stare at the armour seemed almost…wistful, as he beat and polished every last dent, scrape and stain out of the armour. It looked positively ancient – its plating decorated in gold and platinum in a manner befitting a clan chief. "I don't suppose that armour is still usable in combat," Shepard mused aloud as he rounded the curve of the cabin into the mess hall.

Wrex stopped his work to look over at Shepard, his intense eyes focused on him with a mix of grudging admiration and amusement. "Hah," he chuckled, "as combat armour, this was a piece of junk even when it was made. It's purely ceremonial."

"Then why put so much effort into it?"

"It's a reminder of what we were once, of what the Krogan were capable of before…"

"Before the Genophage?"

Wrex nodded, "I'm just shy of eight hundred years old, and for my entire life the Krogan have been in the death throes of civilization, and all due to the genophage." Wrex paused, almost reading Shepard's thoughts as he answered the question Shepard had been about to ask, "it decimated our numbers – one in a thousand births survive the first day of life. Krogan civilization was great once – our empire spanned the entire sector, but the genophage reduced them to animals – fighting over fertile females, over territory, over old grudges earned during the Rebellions and before. To the Krogan, power is life, and when it is scarce they fight for every last scrap of it."

The Genophage had been a catastrophe for the Krogan – that went without saying – but the descent from proud (albeit violent) civilization into the scattered and warring factions of today seemed a far fall even given the annihilation of their population. "Hasn't anyone tried to stop it – stop the factionalism, the civil war, the drain away to mercs and criminals?"

"Krogan have always been naturally violent – Tuchunka is the harshest, most brutal planet in existence, and the Salarians 'uplifting' us specifically to commit genocide didn't help. I've already told you that most would rather kill for credits than save their civilization."

"You don't."

Wrex laughed aloud, but it was with a mix of sadness and anger at the edge of its resonance. "I tried once. I led a smaller branch of Clan Urdnot – this was about four centuries ago – and I tried to negotiate truces centred around the female clans – establish common breeding grounds, shared rituals, mutual protection. It was gaining traction, but some of the older clan chiefs –the ones who had fought in the Rebellions – wanted to keep going to war," he scowled as he remembered it, "including my father. My own father tried to kill me, because I was a threat to what little power he had left. That's how far the Krogan have fallen. It's a much better use of my time to pursue Saren than to follow the pipe-dream of a Krogan renaissance."

"If the Genophage is so destructive, why not try and cure it?"

"You think we haven't tried that? Each clan goes through the motions of hiring a genetics company to try, they fail, we sue, they countersue, it gets settled either with credits or gunfire. Besides, when was the last time you saw a Krogan scientist? If the choice is between working in a lab for a century and killing for credits, take a wild guess which one wins out."

Shepard turned to go into his cabin, planning to catch a few hours of much-needed sleep before they went groundside. "For your sake, I hope someone finds a way."

Wrex made no acknowledgement of the comment, "I won't get my hopes up."

**Virmire – Hoc System – Century Omega Cluster – seven hours later**

The distant main sequence star burned a dim orange as it rose through the hazy atmosphere of Virmire. It was a lush world, coated in verdant jungle and tropical coral reefs. They had landed on one of the larger islands in the midst of a vast ocean of dark blue. Ten miles at its widest point, white limestone cliffs rose majestically against the sea-swept shoals that lined the surface. There was water everywhere, with a climate similar to Earth's equatorial islands, and it was extremely humid. As far as Garrus was concerned, it was far too humid – Palaven was a dry world, the Citadel even dryer, and the sheer volume of water in the air played havoc with his lungs as he slowly scaled the eighty-foot face of one of the limestone bluffs, with Ashley and Liara tethered into the cable behind him.

Tactical analysis by the _Normandy_'s sensors had indicated that Saren's base was heavily defended, using state-of-the-art anti-air batteries that could punch a hole through the _Normandy_ at close range. Their best drop point was four miles out from the small camp the Salarian STG team had established, but heavily guarded by Geth armoured units and troops. Communications with the Salarians were stalled by a jamming tower two miles from the drop, but the approach would leave them dangerously exposed. Shepard, Tali, and Wrex went groundside, while Garrus, Ashley and Liara moved to provide sniper cover from a high bluff overlooking the jamming tower. Shepard was now deep in the internal corridors of the jamming tower's bunker, having breached their defenses on the far side, and he was now preparing to engage the Geth units in the bunker itself.

It was an odd feeling, being in command of a unit. All his working life he'd been restrained by orders – the iron discipline of the Hierarchy Navy, the tactically brilliant but personally infuriating will of his Blackwatch commander, the forty miles of red tape and regulation that came with being a detective at C-SEC. But working under Shepard had been different – freeing, almost. Yes, he had still reigned Garrus in with certain guidelines – no vengeance-killing, minimize civilian casualties – but the manner in which he did so was so different from that at C-SEC that Garrus found himself no longer wanting to cross the barriers that Shepard set. His caution and maturing sense of judgement was reciprocated with higher and higher expectations from his commander, and he now waited patiently with two other squad members in tow.

"Garrus, this is Shepard. We're preparing to breach the main internal blast doors. What's your status?"

"Still climbing the ridge," he glanced down at Ashley and Liara, both of whom were gaining ground on him as he slowed to concentrate on his comms unit, "shouldn't be more than five minutes to the top. We should have a solid view of the jamming tower and the antiship battery when we get there."

"Excellent, we're moving out."

It took them four minutes to scale the ridge, and Pressly hadn't lied when he told Garrus it would give him the best sniper perch he had ever seen. Well over one hundred feet above the shoaled surface of the island, he had a good view of the jamming tower, its electronics buried into the deep recesses of another spire opposite him; it towered well over their ridge, but he had a picture-perfect view of the door to the bunker through his sniper-scope. The ridge wasn't spacious, but there was room enough for him and Ashley to both lie flat in the short grass, their rifles fully extended. Ashley's jaw practically dropped as Garrus unhooked his Volkov VI from his back. He had custom-fitted a new scope that allowed him a high-optics view for more than five kilometers, and the kickback had been reduced down to nothing; it was semiautomatic, yet reloaded so fast that it could properly be considered a very long-range pistol with substantially more firepower. Ashley's own rifle – an S-37J Striker IV – was a combat-oriented design, intended to be used at a much closer range than Garrus. Behind them, Liara knelt and prepared to deploy a biotic barrier around them both. She, Shepard, Kaidan and Wrex had reverse-engineered a method of deploying the barrier so that it would dull the impact of incoming fire, yet actually heighten the speed and force of anything that went through it the other way; it gave their sniper rounds more killing power, but also guaranteed that they were safe from return fire.

Garrus put the scope to his right eye, as he flicked the button that integrated the rifle's targeting with his visor. He saw heat and electronic signatures displays flare up near the jamming tower, concentrated along the defensive wall that Saren had erected. "Garrus here, we're in position. Cover is minimal, but the angles are so bad from the ground that you'd have to be a genius sniper to even have a chance at hitting us, and that's before you account for the barrier Liara's going to put up. I've got a clear thermal and electromagnetic view of the jamming tower. I'm picking up seventeen standard Geth signatures, one Geth armature signature, two large mobile Geth signatures," his eye focused in on the patches of red, "and three Krogan near the exit from the bunker. You'll run into them on your way out."

"Give Saren credit where it's due, he isn't afraid to pay out to hire serious muscle," Wrex remarked wryly over the link.

"I've got a clear view of the entrance to the control bunker – from our vantage point it's about a 400-metre shot, but the wind is minimal so there won't be a lot of tracer warping. We're also close enough that we won't have to account for the coriolis effect, at least not much."

"Garrus, you're doing that sniper-speak thing again," Shepard noted. "We're getting ready to breach. Be ready to provide cover in thirty seconds."

Garrus focused in on one of the Geth, colloquially termed a 'Destroyer' for the heavy flamethrower and nitro tanks stowed firmly on its back plating. His synced targeting system did the legwork for him, rapidly calibrating the armour and shield-load distribution and giving him an optimized firing angle. His forefinger began to toy with the trigger, flexing it back and forth to make sure the shot was perfectly straight and perfectly timed.

"Fifteen seconds until breach," the voice in his earpiece cautioned. Ashley knelt beside him, her sniper resting on her upraised right knee and scanning the ground below them.

"Ten seconds."

_This is living_, Garrus thought to himself. _Who wouldn't take this over being stuck in an office at C-SEC, with enough paperwork to sink a cruiser and enough red tape to infuriate even a Volus? Give me hunting a dangerous, highly-effective and potentially megalomaniacal ex-Spectre over that any day of the week. You know, on second thought, that's probably not healthy. I should go see a psychotherapist when this is done._

"Five seconds."

Garrus closed his unused eye and forgot the world around him – it was just him, his rifle, and a dozen targets arrayed below him.

"Breaching."

Even from his lofty perch, Garrus could hear and feel the force of the blast that seemed to shake the sheer wall of rock that the bunker was carved into. A tiny billow of smoke and flame shot out of one of the narrow openings in the canyon's face, and the atmosphere of the troops patrolling the blast wall changed almost immediately. The two Krogan nearest the bunker's exit charged in, ready to lay waste to whatever scum had dared to enter their guarded territory. Garrus hesitated for a fraction of a second as the Destroyer turned to the exit, and cursed silently when it temporarily disappeared from view. He quickly shifted his focus, and found himself presented with the appealing target of a Geth shock trooper.

"Scoped…" he pressed down on the Volkov's trigger, and felt the inevitable kickback of the rifle against his shoulder as the Geth's head-plate exploded into a thousand shards of metallic alloy, "…and dropped."

To his right, Ashley fired off several rounds from her own sniper as Liara deployed her barrier around the three of them. It obstructed Garrus's view slightly, as a purple-blue haze settled over his scope's line of sight. It proved a useful defense; almost instantly, a sniper shot grazed the barrier and repelled off of it harmlessly. Garrus's visor tracked the pathway of the shot and quickly locked on to the assailant. A second later the Geth sniper's chestplate was blown open by a sniper round.

"No fair," Ashley mock-pouted beside him, "you're stealing all of my targets."

"Feel free to try and keep up," Garrus shot back as he lined up another target and calmly downed it. The sounds of rifle-fire were drowned out by the chatter in his earpiece from Shepard, Tali and Wrex, as their comms came back online beneath the bunker.

"-keep up the pressure. We have to break this line of defense."

"Shepard, we've got Krogan on the far side; I'll handle them!"

"Tali, hack the two shock troopers coming around the corner!"

"Krogan are down but there are more coming! We're pinned down and they're rapidly closing in!"

Behind him, Garrus could feel Liara's concentration begin to waver, as her concern for Shepard began to show in the increased pitch and speed of her breathing. The barrier began to falter, and it barely held under the strain as another Geth sniper threw shot after shot against their defenses. Ashley calmly put several rounds through the attacker, as Garrus focused to line up one last opportunity to kill the Destroyer, which had begun to move through the now-open door to the bunker.

_If you hit this right_, he told himself, _you touch off the Destroyer and the Krogan and possibly a dozen Geth to clear a path for Shepard and Wrex. If this doesn't go well, your shot is too late, the Destroyer doesn't get touched off until it's way too close to Shepard and they get caught in the blast, Liara loses her concentration and we may as well be target practice for those snipers down there. No pressure._ He exhaled slowly as he brought the volatile tank of chemicals on the Geth's back into focus, and time seemed to slow as his finger squeezed the trigger.

The explosion from the Geth Destroyer was enormous, as the mixture of chemicals was touched off by its contact with the oxygenated air of Virmire. The two Krogan were caught in the blast, and both disappeared to Garrus's eyes and targeting life-sensors as the inferno tore through the upper reaches of the bunker. Everywhere he looked, electronic signatures that were faintly veiled by the sheer rock began to disappear.

"Hold on," Shepard came on through the earpiece, "whatever you did out there Garrus, it's definitely working. Just saw a large pile of Geth parts fly against the far wall. What on earth did you do?"

Garrus chuckled to himself, "I earned my pyrotechnics license I think."

He heard Shepard laugh on the other end of the comms. "We're moving into the jamming tower's control room. Tali, see if you can hack the mainframe and shut this thing down."

"Whatever you're doing, you'd better do it quick," Garrus noted as a Geth dropship descended between the towering columns of stone that surrounded the jamming tower. Drop pods rocketed to the ground as the dropship attempted to open fire on the three of them perched on the ridge. Liara got the barrier up just in time, but the heavy impact of an enlarged mass slug sent shudders through the field, and even with his eye firmly focussed on the targets in front of him he could hear the strain and concentration in Liara's breathing as she struggled to hold the field together. Garrus downed three of the Geth emerging from their drop pods before they had a chance to hook their pulse rifles into their circuits.

"Hold on, just finishing up the secondary bypass," Tali's thickly accented voice came over the comms, and it sounded from the background noise as if Shepard and Wrex were fighting off a small army as she finished the hack, "rearrange the code sequences…bypass Geth neural defense systems…got it!" Garrus watched through his scope as the electronic signature around the jamming tower's antennae first dimmed, and then went completely dark. "the jamming tower is down. We should have full comms with the _Normandy_ and the Salarian STG team."

Sure enough, Garrus's omnitool came alive with chatter on the STG comms, as they struggled to get a message through the communications grid and to the Citadel Council. "All Citadel units, this is STG Team Beta Seven. We are stranded on Virmire in the Hoc System; requesting reinforcements from the Citadel Council, the Hierarchy Fleet, or the Special Tactics and Recon Branch. Does anyone read this?"

Shepard was still locked in combat, so Garrus took the opportunity to respond. "This is First Lieutenant Garrus Vakarian of the Fourth Blackwatch Regiment on board the Alliance-Hierarchy Frigate _Normandy_." He hadn't gone by that designation in years – not since well before he became a C-SEC detective, but it seemed to carry more brevity than a simple C-SEC posting when dealing with Salarian or Asari special forces. "A team is en-route to your position once we disable the antiship gun. Recommend you hold your position and wait for our arrival." Garrus switched off the channel and connected to Shepard and Wrex again, "Shepard, you there?"

The reply took time, and for several seconds all Garrus could hear was muffled rifle-fire and the warped shockwaves of biotic attacks. "We're kind of busy right now, what do you have for me?"

"I've made contact with the Salarian STG Team. We're to link up with them at their base."

"Well that's just fine," Wrex practically screamed over the comms to drown out the hail of the gunfire in the background, "except for the fact that we're pinned the fuck down by about two dozen Geth, not to mention another four or five Krogan in addition to the three we've already killed."

"Shepard," Tali's voice joined in the shouted conversation, "I've got an idea, but it's a little bit crazy."

"No wonder she's fit in just fine," Garrus muttered to himself.

He didn't catch the next part, but Shepard and Wrex seemed to acquiesce, and moments later there was a sudden spike of electrical energy on Garrus's targeting visor. All the pings of blue light on his scope seemed to concentrate on a single point, as the Geth shells became lifeless, devoid of energy or power. The energy concentrated itself around three unmistakable forms deep in the bunker, its concentration so dense that even through thirty or forty feet of rock Garrus could see their forms – a Krogan, a Quarian, and a Human. They seemed to positively radiate on his visor, and he saw them move rapidly through the twisted corridors or the bunker and up towards the surface. When they emerged from the tunnel, they tore through the few remaining Geth in their path in a flurry of biotic and tech attacks, and Garrus's targeting system noted that their shields were nearly five times as strong as they were supposed to be.

"As a third-party observer, I have to ask: What the hell was that?"

"Energy collection field," Tali replied as Wrex and Shepard finished off the last of the Krogan, "something I've been working on for a while. It collects electrons in the vicinity and concentrates them around specific armour capacitors."

"It seems to have done the job," Shepard noted through panted breaths, and even over the comms Garrus could tell that his adrenaline was in overdrive. "Now we just need to take out the damn anti-ship battery."

"I think I might be able to help with that," Joker's voice came in over the comms, and Garrus turned in time to see the _Normandy_ speeding towards them, its engines running on full stealth situated barely twenty feet above the water to avoid LADAR detection. He felt as much as heard the deafening roar of the _Normandy_'s deuterium ion engines as it raced over them, firing a concussive barrage of disruptor torpedoes and Javelin missiles at the gun battery. By the time the massive turret had turned to lock onto the frigate, it was already too late, as it disappeared in a column of fire and smoke under the onslaught. Enormous shards of durasteel and gutted electronics fell from the pedestal it rested on, crushing one of the blast walls between Shepard and the Salarian camp. Burned-out electronics rained down on the few remaining Geth in their path, either crushing them under their sheer weight or making contact with their circuits and frying them completely. When Garrus lifted his eyes to look at the scene, the _Normandy_ was gone as fast as it had come. "I figured you guys could use the extra firepower," Joker responded, and Garrus could almost picture the pilot's sly grin in his mind's eye.

"Roger that Joker; thanks for the assist. Garrus, Liara, Ashley – we'll rendezvous at the Salarian camp."

Garrus holstered his sniper rifle as Liara brought down the barrier. "Our work here is done. Let's move."

**Base Camp – Salarian STG Platoon Beta Seven – Virmire – twenty minutes later**

The Salarians had made camp amidst the shoals that hugged the edge of the island, their prefab tents established within twenty feet of the waterline on the white sand that covered the shore. Though STG platoons tended to deploy a strength of thirty or forty, barely fifteen Salarian operatives remained active, with another three lying wounded in the makeshift medical tent they had established. The _Normandy_ had nestled itself in a narrow space between the two limestone bluffs that towered above the camp and provided shelter from the sea wind. The rest of the combat crew had disembarked, and now squatted amongst the cliffs, waiting for Shepard's orders to continue.

Shepard approached the leader of the STG team – a tall Salarian who carried himself with an air of importance and precision. "I'm Captain Vaelon Kirrahe – Salarian Third Infiltration Regiment." He held out a hand in greeting, which Shepard readily accepted, "we're thankful that you've come – we were beginning to think the Citadel wouldn't respond. It's nice to get the beginnings of support."

"Commander John Shepard – Special Tactics and Recon and Alliance Navy. What's the situation here?"

Kirrahe waved him, Garrus and Wrex over to a tactical map display that the Salarians had set up in their command tent. "Three weeks, two days and sixteen hours ago, Union intelligence identified this outpost as a major base of operations for Saren Arterius – an ex-Spectre declared by the Council to have gone Rogue. We deployed with the intent of monitoring the base and ascertaining its function. Five days and seven hours ago, we attempted a reconnaissance attack on the base – we wanted to probe its defenses and see how hard it would be to take." The tactical monitor swivelled, outlining the contours of Saren's base. The defensive perimeter was one of the strongest he had ever seen, with multiple choke-points for defensive counterattacks, a network of automated turrets and aerial recon drones, and heavily-reinforced shield generators that rendered the base near-impenetrable to aerial attack. "It's a tough nut to crack, and we sustained heavy losses probing its defenses for weaknesses. We did, however, figure out what they're doing here." Kirrahe's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the three commandos in front of him, "he's trying to cure the Genophage – breed an army of Krogan that will fight for him."

Shepard and Garrus both expressed surprise, but the most telling reaction was that of Wrex. Krogan were nearly impossible to read, but even Shepard could tell that Wrex's entire tone had changed. His body seemed to tense up and his eyes locked forward. "Curing the Genophage? But that seems impossible."

Kirrahe shook his head, "it's not impossible, I assure you. Our intel suggests that their genetics labs are frighteningly close to finding a cure. We have to shut them down and destroy it."

Wrex was aghast, "destroy it?! I don't think so. The Krogan are dying off, and if Saren really can cure the Genophage, that's a chance we have to take." Shepard didn't like where this line of reasoning was going at all.

"It would be a mistake to allow Saren to breed an army of Krogan – they're much more powerful than the Geth, and would be much more loyal. We can't make the mistake of allowing that to happen."

Wrex crossed the distance between him and Kirrahe in a matter of moments, and Shepard was anxious as he watched the massive Krogan lift himself to his full height, his red eyes boring into Kirrahe with a cold fury and outrage. "We…" his every word seemed laced with a threatening rage, "are **not**…a mistake!" With that, Wrex turned and stormed out of the command tent towards the shore.

Kirrahe watched him leave, and turned back to Shepard with an air of caution in his voice, "is he going to be a problem? We're going to have enough difficulty as it is breaking down Saren's defenses without a Krogan that's ready to gut us from behind."

"I'll handle it." Shepard turned to Garrus, "figure out tactics with them. I'll go deal with Wrex." His ears rang as he heard the sound of Wrex firing his shotgun into the shore, its modded rounds sizzling as they made contact with the water.

As he stepped out of the tent, he found himself face to face with Liara. She studied his face for a moment, a slight edge of concern etched into her expression, "is everything okay?"

Shepard thought about it for a moment, and then shook his head, "I'm not sure. Wrex seems extremely pissed off, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to calm him."

Liara moved her hands up, resting them on the underside of his wrists as she looked into his eyes. "Be careful, alright?" Shepard nodded, and lifted his hands out of her grip, leaving her looking at him helplessly.

Wrex positively seethed with rage when Shepard walked up to him, his hands trembling with anger as he held his shotgun at the ground. "This isn't right Shepard. If Saren's found a cure for the Genophage, we can't destroy it."

Shepard moved slightly closer to Wrex, so close that if he had wanted the Krogan Battlemaster could have had him in a death grip in a matter of seconds. "Wrex, I know you want a cure for the Genophage, and I can't blame you. But this isn't a cure to bring back the golden age of the Krogan; this is a cure to breed an unstoppable army to conquer the galaxy. We have to stop it."

"If Saren wants a cure to the Genophage, that would be good enough for most Krogan." His voice dropped to a menacing growl, as his grip tightened around his shotgun, "I trusted you – hell, you've done more to help our cause than my own family did, but help me out here Shepard. As far as I can see, the lines between friend and foe are starting to get really blurry." His hand was on Shepard's shoulder, and rapidly tightening its grip. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"Wrex, you talk about saving the Krogan race. Do you honestly think that the ones in Saren's army are the ones you want to save? You saw what his flagship does to those who serve under him – they're mindless shells of themselves, thralls that exist only to serve Saren. He broke one of the most powerful Asari Matriarchs in the galaxy; the Krogan mercenaries will be easy pickings for him." Shepard flared his biotics in warning, and Wrex's grip loosened slightly. "These are not your people; they're Saren's slaves, and I don't think he'll be that generous with his gifts to those who didn't serve him; do you?"

Time around them seemed to stand still, and for a moment the world consisted only of Shepard and Wrex, each with a will of iron daring the other one to bend. Finally, Wrex backed off, "no. We were the servants of the Salarians once, and in exchange they neutered us. I know Saren, and he won't be nearly that kind." He holstered his shotgun, but eyed Shepard cautiously. "But I need to know that we're doing this for the right reasons."

Shepard nodded, "I give you my word. I will do everything in my power to get you your cure, but not like this."

"That's good enough for me, but I'd ask one thing in return," Wrex said, his eyes darkening with battle-rage, "when we find Saren, I want his head."

Wrex wandered into the supply tent to restock on medigel, and Liara immediately ran to Shepard. "Did you manage to get Wrex on-side?" Shepard nodded, "thank the Goddess!"

Shepard returned to the command tent to find Garrus, Kirrahe, and his second-in-command Captain Rentola pouring over a near-endless set of maps and holograms of attack patterns and strategies. "What plans do you have?"

Kirrahe shrugged his shoulders, "we definitely have an end-point, but we haven't figured out to get there yet. We can hardwire the reactor from our vessel to act as a ten-megaton fusion bomb, which – if we placed it here," he gestured to a large unloading bay on the far side of the facility, "would probably destroy the entire facility. The main threat is the genetics labs, which would almost certainly be incinerated in the blast. The difficulty is getting to them – we could use the _Normandy_ to deliver the bomb, but it can't get through the shield unless it's deactivated first. We'll have to go in on foot."

Garrus pulled up one of the hologram patterns, "all my Hierarchy instincts are telling me that we should attack along this single access bridge here and grind it out simply through attrition," he indicated on the projection, "but we don't have the capacity to take that many casualties."

"What about here," Shepard offered, highlighting a back entrance to the facility as well as two secured blast doors on the front side of the base. "I could take a team and infiltrate the maintenance area of the facility, and then use that to cut across to the labs. If you can send teams to capture the control room the _Normandy_ could then airlift the core into the landing bay."

"It might work," Captain Rentola offered, "but we're dangerously low on ammunition and soldiers. They'd just thrash us defensively."

"Then split your force; make them divide their defenses between two or three groups, and that way you lessen the burden on any one force. If we're really lucky, it'll make the route to the labs easier."

Kirrahe pondered the plan for several minutes, retreating to the back corner of the tent to talk with Rentola in hushed tones. Garrus turned to Shepard, "glad to see you were able to sort things out with Wrex. I thought that was going to end badly."

"It was just a matter of convincing him that we're doing this for the right reasons."

"And are we?"

"I'd like to think so. I don't harbour anything against the Krogan, it's just that Saren with an army of them is a terrifying prospect, not to mention that the Krogan's current leadership – at least according to Wrex – is so backward and violent that the Rebellions would restart inside of a week."

"Well, let's hope the rest of the Krogan in the galaxy see it that way too."

Kirrahe and Rentola returned from their corner, the former with a look of apprehension on his face. "Commander Shepard, we think it's a good plan, insofar as it gets you access to the labs. However, we also think that there's a very high probability that most of our platoon will die in the diversionary attacks, which makes what I'm about to ask even more difficult." He drew in a breath, waiting to see how Shepard would react, "I need one of your crew to join my platoon for the assault. Rentola and I can coordinate the first two assault teams but we need someone experienced in command to lead the third."

Shepard had dreaded that suggestion, but he had seen it coming. He mentally went through the list and crossed off those he couldn't spare. Of his crew, only Wrex, Garrus, Kaidan and Ashley had prior experience in a commanding position; putting Wrex in charge of a team of Salarians was just asking for chaos, and Shepard needed Garrus on his infiltration team. That left him with the difficult decision of which of his human squad members to select.

He motioned for Kaidan and Ashley to join him, "The Salarians and I have a plan to get into Saren's base and destroy the genetics facilities," Ashley's face brightened at the news, "and it's going to involve three diversionary teams attacking the main entrance to the facility while Garrus, Liara and I sneak in through the maintenance areas. Kirrahe has asked that one of you join him to coordinate one of the fire-teams. Kirrahe and Captain Rentola also expressed their fear that the mission could possibly end in slaughter on their end."

Kaidan stepped forward, "in that case Commander, I volunteer."

"Wait a second LT," Ashley interjected, "no one said you'd get first claim. I volunteer myself for the role as well."

"With all due respect Williams, I have more experience in command than you, and I'd much rather put myself in harms' way."

That caused Ashley to roll her eyes, "why is it that whenever anyone says 'with all due respect', they really mean 'kiss my ass'?"

It was so typically Alliance for two soldiers to start trying to out-volunteer one another for a suicide mission, so Shepard decided to end it quickly. "Kaidan, you're the most experienced field commander I have with me – I'll need Ashley to help with escorting the bomb to its drop-point. You'll go with Kirrahe and his team."

"Yes commander, I-," Kaidan's voice caught in his throat, "-I'll get to the Salarians."

Ashley looked at the young lieutenant with concern, "you ok LT?"

"I-, yes. Just…just be safe out there." Kaidan replied.

Shepard turned to Kaidan, "I need you to treat Kirrahe as if he were me – if he orders you to jump, you ask how high. if he orders you to attack, you attack. If he orders you to retreat, retreat. Can you do that?" Kaidan nodded curtly, "excellent. Good luck out there."

Kirrahe assembled the remaining twenty members of his platoon in front of their command tent, their briefs already complete and their mission orders given by Kirrahe's lieutenants. The commander paced back and forth as he attempted to rally his troops for battle.

"You all know the mission, and what is at stake." He surveyed the twenty Salarians in front of him, "I have come to trust each of you with my life – but I have also heard the whisperings of discontent, and I confess that I share your concerns. We fight an enemy that is well-equipped, one who holds the high ground, the sky, and outnumbers us ten to one. Yet this is our way; we are trained for espionage – we would be legends, but the records are sealed." His voice began to rise as he worked himself into a battle-inspired fervour, "think of our heroes; the Silent Step, who brought down empires with a single shot. Or the Ever Alert, who kept armies at bay armed only with the truth. Time and time again, they were outnumbered ten to one; time and time again, they were victorious in the shadows, denied glory by the nature of their victory." He punched his fist in the air, emphasizing the grandiose conclusion of his remarks, "before the network, we had the fleet. Before diplomacy, we had soldiers. Our influence stopped the Rachni, but not before we held the line! Our influence stopped the Krogan, but not before we held the line! Our influence will stop Saren, because we will hold the line!"

Kirrahe turned to Shepard as the Salarian commandos jogged at a brisk pace toward the edge of their camp, their spirits reinvigorated. "Commander, get your team ready. When we're in position, it's time to unleash hell."

**Genetics Labs – Unidentified Outpost, Virmire, Hoc System – Two Hours Later**

Shepard watched in satisfaction as the lead Krogan scientist's body hit the ground, his armour riddled with the jagged holes produced by his and Liara's combined warp blast. Behind them, the bulk of the genetics lab lay in ruins, its rare and expensive instruments a smoldering heap of twisted metal and its data corrupted beyond recognition by a mainframe hack that Tali had designed for the purpose.

The three Salarian assault teams had proven extremely effective, pulling virtually the entire defensive force away from the maintenance area and giving Shepard, Garrus and Liara a clear run at the back entrances to Saren's base. They had managed to sabotage much of the Geth infrastructure that coordinated their defenses against the Salarian teams – the communications grid that powered the automated turret defenses, the refueling stations for Geth aerial drones, the internal alarms for the base's security, and even the targeting systems for the antiship batteries that would have proven lethal to the _Normandy_'s armour.

"Aegohr Team, this is Alenko, we're almost at the shield control room. What's your status?"

"Rentola here; we're taking heavy fire from several Geth positions, but Kirrahe and Manovai should be able to take the pressure off. Recommend you hold course until we hear from Shepard that the labs have been cleared."

Shepard knelt and swiped the access pass from the Krogan's body and continued through the door on the far side of the labs. Preliminary scans of the base showed that there were several more rooms to go, and he wanted to be sure that they left nothing of value behind. The door responded to the touch of the card and opened to grant them access to the exterior of the base once more. Two Geth Destroyers were waiting for them, and Shepard threw himself out of the path of the arcing flame that raced towards them. Liara froze one of them in a stasis bubble, and Garrus quickly sent a circuitry overload into the flamethrower of the remaining mobile unit. The release system backfired, and Shepard and Liara barely rolled behind cover before they felt the wave of staggering heat hit them as the Geth was consumed in an inferno of volatile chemicals. When the second Geth was released from stasis, Garrus and Shepard were ready for it, and it only took a few well-placed rounds from both of them to leave it a scarred heap on the catwalk.

The next chamber at first appeared to be nothing more than a long and curving hallway, yet as they entered it Shepard saw the shapes of individual panels on the walls, each with a clear glass window eight or nine feet in height. These were holding cells, and they lined the walls on both sides – there must have been fifteen or twenty of them. Each of them was filled with a single specimen – several Asari, a handful of Turians, and several feral species of animal that Shepard had never seen. One cell in particular caught his attention, and he traversed the distance to the far corner rapidly, where an armoured Salarian was clawing furiously at the window, trying in vain to escape. His armour bore the mark of the Third Infiltration Regiment; this was one of Kirrahe's solders. But there were several things about this Salarian that seemed…off: his thrashings against the window were powerful, too powerful for a Salarian's normal range; the skin around his eyes seemed ringed with mechanical implants that forced the eyelids permanently open. His pupils were dilated completely, and they gave off an iridescent blue glow that eerily reminded Shepard of the eyes of the Geth husks that they had seen on so many occasions. The Salarian fixed him with a baleful stare, the muscles in its face twitching in contorted pain.

Shepard leaned forward until his face was nearly touching the glass, searching for some recognition in the Salarian's face. "Who are you? Are you one of Kirrahe's soldiers?" He rocked back sharply as the Salarian smashed its curled fists against the glass, trying in vain to break out of its prison. It emitted a scream of frustration –a low-pitched wail that was edged with a sound that was almost mechanical in nature.

The soldier collapsed against the glass, his knees barely holding him up as the blue glow in his eyes faded slightly. Words struggled to come out, and when they did they were tinged with that same mechanical sound, "I've….I was captured during the first assault…they've been doing….tests….I can't even hear myself think anymo-….the growl….it's always there…always instructions…orders…always shouting….its orders are….so simple….so…damn….simple!" The last word turned into a snarl as the eyes glowed again, and he leapt at the door with renewed vigour, before again dropping in exhaustion. "please…just end it…I beg of you…"

Shepard nodded solemnly, and quickly hacked the door to allow the Salarian out. He threw himself at Shepard violently, and Garrus reacted quickly by putting two pistol rounds through the soldier's chest. He collapsed to the floor, green blood pouring from the twin wounds. "thank….you…"

They kept moving, leaving the other prisoners staring blankly ahead, the same glow in their eyes as the Salarian. None of them, however, made the same mad leap at the bulletproof glass as the Salarian had. Shepard quickly ushered Liara and Garrus through the far door, which opened onto another catwalk on the exterior of the facility.

"We've already got the Krogan research destroyed," Garrus observed as they hustled across the gangway to the door in front of them, "what else was he researching here? What haven't we discovered yet?"

Liara answered as Shepard connected his omnitool to the door's security panel and began the hack, "I don't know, but whatever it is can only be dangerous."

The security panel proved more difficult to hack than Shepard had anticipated. The encryption was far more complicated than that in any other part of the base,

"Shepard, this is Kirrahe," the voice on his comm-link interrupted his thoughts as the hack neared completion, "we've captured the control room for the external defenses of the facility. We're waiting to deactivate the heavy shields until your team has finished in the labs. What's your status?"

Shepard smiled to himself as the hack finished, and the light on the central electronic hub of the door flashed from orange to green, "we got through the genetics labs without problems. We're just investigating the second set of research rooms." His voice darkened, "we found one of your men in a holding cell. They'd been…experimenting on him. We…" Shepard paused as he tried to find the right words, "gave him peace."

"Thank-you Commander. Several of my men were captured when we attempted our first attack, and I'm not surprised that that was their fate. They deserved better. We'll wait to deactivate the shield until you're done in the labs. Kirrahe out."

Garrus punched the holo-button and the door opened, revealing yet another antechamber – this one devoid of any covering or decoration. This appeared far older than the rooms that had made up the rest of the facility. While the genetics labs had been pure concrete and durasteel, here the walls were smooth obsidian, and they positively glittered as their mirror-like surface scattered the newly-introduced light to all four corners of the room in a dazzling display of shadows and rays of light. The temperature dropped too; it was nearly ten degrees colder inside than it was in the hot tropical air of Virmire. There were no lights on the inside; instead, two narrow glass-covered openings in the ceiling flooded two solitary points with light, yet the opaque obsidian floor did not reflect and scatter the rays as the walls did.

"Goddess, I've seen this before," Liara remarked in awe as they slowly and carefully made their way into the room. She closed her eyes, standing perfectly still as she breathed in everything about the room – the feel of the air against her throat, the ancient smell of obsidian that permeated the chamber, the feel of the cooled air against her skin. "I've got it," her eyes shot open and she stared directly at Shepard, "Shepard, this building is Prothean!"

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, "absolutely. It reminds me almost perfectly of one of the first digs I was on. We ended up digging through this antechamber with these same sort of Obsidian walls – even the air feels the same in here."

"What sort of building was it?"

"It was a Prothean temple of some sort, and if I remember correctly there was-," Liara's eyes widened as the memory seemed to strike her across the face, "Goddess, there were the remnants of a Beacon there!" The three of them raced for the far wall, which parted seamlessly to reveal an ancient yet ornately simple elevator, carved of the same pure and flawless obsidian as the antechamber. The elevator seemed to respond to their movements, as the door closed behind them and it began its rapid descent into the bowels of the facility.

"Unlit ancient building," Garrus observed, "creepy elevator that takes us to some unknown destination in the midst of the base of a megalomaniac…in the movies, something bad typically happens about now."

After a minute-long descent, the elevator door silently opened to reveal a vast underground chamber. The walls stretched more than forty feet high, and ran perhaps ninety or a hundred feet further down. Water poured through small openings in the ceiling, running down along the walls to collect in a vast pool that surrounded the raised platform. The ledge they were standing on extended twenty feet in front of them, and was lined with red holographic terminals that Shepard's omnitool indicated were foreign to the room – likely belonging to Saren. In the middle of the pool was a small square platform, barely ten feet across, on which sat an intact and functional Prothean Beacon.

"Goddess, I've never seen anything like it." It looked so perfect, so majestic and sublime, as if fate had deemed that this Beacon was to lay at this spot for the remainder of eternity, undisturbed by the world above it. It felt like being on hallowed ground; the Beacon pulsed with an invisible energy that sent ripples throughout the room, and regularly caused all three of them to shiver as if electricity was arcing up their backs Liara stared with eyes as wide at saucers at it – the ultimate dream of anyone who ever considered studying the Protheans. Even Garrus seemed awed by it, as he muttered a near-silent curse under his breath. The red-coloured panels of information on either side of him disappeared from his vision, and Shepard began to feel as if some unseen force was drawing him towards the beacon.

As they neared the edge of the platform they were standing on, the water beneath them began to shift. Liara was nearly thrown off-balance as a narrow block of obsidian rose from the pool to connect their platform with the Beacon's. As they moved to the stone catwalk, the Beacon began to shift in colour, moving from the green haze similar to the one Shepard had seen on Eden Prime and towards an orange-yellow shade of electric light. The air around it bent towards the Beacon as Shepard approached, his movements cautious as he walked ahead of Liara and Garrus and towards the Beacon.

All at once it happened, just as on Eden Prime. He felt himself lifted into the air by the force-field around the Beacon, and in moments he felt his mind become overwhelmed by the images that the Beacon forced through his head. They were the same as before, yet clearer than when he had beheld the Prothean vision as part of the Cipher. Where before many of the images had been blurry, almost rushed, these now held themselves steady before his mind's eye, his senses taking it all in. The scale of the destruction seemed more vast than it had been in the Cipher, the fire was sharper and clearer and more all-encompassing.

Words swirled through his head, an unknown Prothean voice shouting above the fury and chaos with clarity. _"They cannot be stopped, they cannot be reasoned with, and they cannot be outrun. The doom of the Prothean race is at hand, yet hope remains. Seek out the Lost Planet – the ancient haven of knowledge and civilization where only the Electors of Pangea dare walk, and you might yet find salvation for all life."_ The Beacon's message ended, and Shepard collapsed to the ground on all fours, his mind burned out and drained by the intensity of the encounter.

Liara was at his side in moments, her soft hands gently guiding him back to his feet. "Shepard, are you alright? What did you see? Was it the same message as before?"

"I-, I think so, but it was much clearer, and-," he clutched the side of his head as pain rang through it, "much more…intense." He pushed himself up off his knees and moved towards the stone catwalk, "let's get out of here. We have to plant that bomb and get off this planet."

As they crossed the distance between the two platforms, the bank of red holo-terminals along the platform near the door began to shift. The screens and keypads morphed into a towering colossus of pixelated light, stretching nearly twenty feet high in front of them and striking an imposing figure. The figure vaguely resembled a cuttlefish, yet with an elongated spinal ridge. Four mandibles extended downward to form a claw of code, with six additional leglike structure in the centre of the body. As far as Shepard could tell, this colossus did not have eyes, yet he got the distinct and eery feeling that whatever this thing was – even through a holo-projection – it was watching him.

"I get the feeling that something really bad is about to happen," Garrus remarked as he, Shepard and Liara stepped off the catwalk and stood in front of the image, level with what appeared to be the head

"_You…are not…Saren."_ When it spoke, its deep and metallic voice reverberated throughout the chamber, sending ripples across the pool of water from the force of its voice. Worse still, it seemed to speak _within_ Shepard's mind as well – he could hear its echo across the vast chamber, but he could also hear it in the deepest recesses of his own thoughts, as if an outside force was imposing its will on him.

Liara and Garrus seemed to feel the same way, and both reacted to it with a mix of panic and fear on their faces. "What the hell is that thing? Some sort of VI interface?"

"_You are rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch My mind, fumbling in ignorance; you are incapable of understanding or comprehending. You are no different from the other I have influenced."_

Shepard felt Liara clutch at his shoulder, overcome by fear. When she finally spoke, it was with an edge of terror in her voice as Shepard felt the words and exhale against the back of his neck, "I don't think this is a VI."

The feeling of her breath against his skin brought a momentary respite from his own inner panic, yet within an instant the voice was back in his mind, assaulting his senses as it demanded his attention. _"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension – the sum of all your fears, of all your nightmares. I am the answer to the question left unanswered at the dawn of time, and I am the ending of your age. I…am Sovereign._"

The realization hit him with the force of a cruiser, as understanding dawned on Shepard for the first time. "_Sovereign_ isn't a Reaper vessel," he spoke to no one in particular, "it's a Reaper."

"_Reaper – a label created by the Protheans to give voice to their annihilation. In the end, what they chose to call Us is irrelevant; We simply are."_

"You wiped out the Protheans," Garrus asked incredulously behind him, "but that's impossible. That was 50,000 years ago; you couldn't have been alive then."

Shepard could feel Sovereigns…emotions (if they could be called that) as it studied the three of them: Curiosity, contempt, revulsion. _"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation – a cosmic accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. Your forms are fragile – you wither and die, leaving nothing behind you. We are eternal," _A chill ran down Shepard's spine at the thought, _"We are the pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before Us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything."_ The holo shifted slightly, its head adjusting itself so that it was focused forward and intently on them. _"I know what you are about to say, human. You are going to tell Us that you will stop Us. This is confidence born of ignorance and fear. The cycle cannot be broken."_

Every question that this conversation answered seemed only to bring up a dozen more, "cycle? What cycle?"

"_The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance, and at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished. The Protheans were not the first; they did not create the Citadel, or the Mass Relays – they merely found them. They are the legacy of My kind."_

"Why the hell would you create something as powerful as the Mass Relays and then simply leave it for others to find?"

"_Your civilization is based on the technology of the Mass Relays – Our technology," _the omnipresent voice pounded into his head, "_by using it, your society develops along the paths that We desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution." _It regarded them coldly, _"you exist because We allow it_," it let the final thought hang in the air, terror gripping Shepard and his companions as they waited for the inevitable conclusion of the statement, _"and you will die…because We demand it."_

Shepard could have gone for an entire range of responses; he opted for defiance. "There is an entire galaxy of races, united under a single banner and ready to stop you."

When the voice echoed through the chamber and his mind again, it sounded amused by his bravado. _"Really? I know your universe, human, and I know that you are lying. I see Batarians and Humans fighting each other over scraps of land and food. I see the Turians always ready for the commencing of a war with your kind, and you with theirs. I see the Terminus Systems, a haven of anarchy and chaos. You are not united, and even if you were, it would not matter – We will destroy you. The time of your doom is at hand. We cannot be stopped – We will not be stopped. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This conversation is over."_ With that, the holographic projection vanished, leaving the chamber dark and empty.

It was a long time before anyone spoke, until finally Garrus broke the silence. "Well that was…insightful."

"All this time we thought it was Saren pulling the strings," Liara mused aloud, "but it looks like he's just as controlled as Benezia was."

"We can't worry about _Sovereign_ right now, so let's just plant the bomb and get out of here." Shepard tried to contact Joker, but the two hundred feet of solid rock between them and the surface cut communications entirely. They sprinted to the elevator, which immediately began its ascent as the last of them crossed the threshold from the chamber. It shot up rapidly, pressing Shepard's feet to the floor from the weight of the acceleration. As they neared the surface, Joker came in hazily over the comms

"-ard, Shep-, Comm…please tell me that's you, Commander. Your signal's been off my readings for the last fifteen minutes. Please come in."

"I'm here Joker. What's going on?"

"We've been monitoring Geth fleet traffic in the Hoc system, and that ship – _Sovereign_? It just pulled a turn that would sheer an Alliance dreadnought in half. It's heading your way, and fast. You might want to deploy the bomb before they blow us halfway to the Sol System."

"Got it. We'll meet you and the Salarians in the main courtyard." He flicked several buttons on his omnitool to contact the STG Team, "Kirrahe, this is Shepard. What's your status?"

"We're pinned down in the control tower and taking heavy fire. We'll lower the shields in thirty seconds to allow the _Normandy_ through the perimeter. We'll do our best to rendezvous with you at the landing zone."

**Landing Bay 2C – Unidentified Outpost, Virmire, Hoc System, Century Omega – ten minutes later**

Shepard watched as Ashley and _Normandy_ Corporal Silas Crosby carefully maneuvered the core of the Salarian frigate down the ramp of the cargo bay and onto the watered surface of the landing bay. The size comparison brought into focus just how powerful the systems on the _Normandy_ were; the Salarian's drive core was barely a third the size of his ship's Tantalus Drive Core, its domed radiation cover made of rusted copper instead of the polished titanium of the _Normandy_'s perfectly-sphered cover. During flight, the lights emitted from small outcroppings in the dome would flash between green and yellow, indicating the remaining supply of deuterium; they now glowed a dark red, flaring occasionally to orange as its deadly cargo was primed for detonation by Kaidan.

The courtyard looked to be the perfect setup for the blast. Boasting hundred foot-high walls of solid concrete, the ground lurked just below sea level, meaning that water flowed continuously beneath their feet towards a large set of drain pipes on the far end of the landing pad. Kirrahe had calculated this to be the perfect epicentre of the facility; if they detonated their drive core here, it would turn a six-mile radius into a barren wasteland of ash and fire.

They slowly carried the converted drive core to the far end of the landing yard, placing it near the drains and well away from any point where reinforcements could be deployed. The blast doors were sealed tight, and the _Normandy_ had yet to detect any Geth or Reaper signatures in the area.

"Shepard, this is Alenko," his comm link barked at him with a hint of panic in her voice, "we're pinned down hard at the control tower, and taking losses fast. Rentola is wounded, and we're down to ten men; we won't last much longer up here!"

Time was of the essence. Every moment that they lingered was another moment that _Sovereign_ and its Geth fleet were bearing down on them, threatening to trap them and destroy them on this planet. Every impulse in his head screamed at him to go to their aid, but the cold, hard, rational commander part of him told him that there wasn't time, that it was necessary to get out of here as quickly as they could.

Ashley made the choice for him, "go Shepard. I need some time to program and arm the bomb anyways – I'll be a few minutes." He gestured to the small spire barely two hundred metres in front of them, "the tower isn't far. Go help them."

That settled it then. "Kaidan, Kirrahe, this is Shepard. We're on our way. Hold the line a little longer."

Shepard motioned to Garrus and Liara, who quickly followed him to the set of blast doors towards the control tower. A large open-air corridor extended fifty feet in front of them, flanked on either side by the same hundred-foot walls of concrete that protected the landing zone. They quickly fought their way through the Geth and Krogan on the other side, Liara and Shepard combining their biotics to deadly effect as explosion after explosion of element zero tore through their foes. As they reached the elevator on the far side of the corridor and piled in, their comms overwhelmed by chatter from Kirrahe and his team.

"Alenko, reinforce Manovai's flank – those Destroyers are gaining too much ground."

"Captain, Aegohr Squad has been depleted to three men. We'll be overwhelmed in moments. Where's Shep-."

"He'll get here Lieutenant. Just hold the line! Watch out for that crossfire!"

Shepard sprinted across the upper courtyard, reaching the short railing that separated ground from sky in a matter of seconds. Moments later he was vaulting over the short wall between the two catwalks, moving as fast as his six-foot frame would carry him towards the control tower. At a distance of less than a hundred metres, they could see tracer-fire and stray rounds spraying through the now-shattered glass windows, and the shouts of the Salarian commandos were discernible even from this distance.

"Commander, this is _Normandy_. We've picked up multiple Geth signatures inbound to our position – what looks like four transports and a frigate. We're bugging out to avoid getting hemmed in. We'll circle around to the atoll forty clicks from here and swing back around when you're ready for extraction." The air around him became deafeningly loud as the _Normandy_ rocketed away from the facility, disappearing over the horizon in a matter of seconds.

As if on cue, Shepard heard the distinct roar of the engines of a Geth transport as it passed above them, its clawed underbelly opening its bay doors to reveal multiple deployment pods. Garrus braced himself for a vicious firefight, his rifle ready as Liara charged her biotics back up to combat levels. The transport, however, seemed to ignore them, cruising overhead to deploy its ground forces directly into the courtyard where Kaidan was finishing arming the bomb.

"Commander, this is Williams. We've got Geth in the courtyard."

"How many?"

"Lots – too many. It's me and four Marines from our detachment down here. The bomb is armed, but if the Geth get too close it'll be deactivated."

"I'm on my way back! Hold on!"

"Commander!" Kaidan's voice was frantic as it cut through his head, "we're getting overwhelmed here! There's too many of them!"

"Fucking hell!" Ashley swore into Shepard's comms unit, "Shepard, go and get Kaidan and the Salarians. We'll hold out as long as we can!"

"Belay that, Chief," Kaidan shouted back at him, "get that bomb armed and get the hell out of here!"

A knot had begun to develop in Shepard's gut, and now it coursed outwards, flooding his veins with panic. Every officer cadet was taught to dread this situation, to pray to whatever gods they prayed to that it would never befall them, that their fate would never hang on such a decision, that they would never have to make such a decision. He couldn't save them both – time was against him, the deployment of the battlefield was against him, even his own damn subordinates were against him, each madly urging him on to try and save the other. A mixture of emotions – anger, horror, crushing despair – flooded through him as he grasped the totality and gravity of what lay before him: He had to choose who lived and who died.

His thoughts overloaded with the endless variations of trying to make this impossible choice. He could think of it from a command level – Kaidan outranked Ashley, and thus was considered more important to the Alliance chain of command. But there were also four other Marines with Ashley – men he had trained with, fought with, drilled with, flown with, weighed against a single Alliance life. But then there were the Salarians – maybe ten of them left in total. Did their lives count for less than those Alliance Marines? Did theirs count for more? He didn't want to do this, he couldn't do this, and yet if he hesitated, there was a good chance that they all died.

The presence of the Salarians complicated things. His father would have abandoned them; he had viewed a dozen Salarian lives as worth nothing compared to those of five humans. But he was not his father, and the intel that Kirrahe and his team had acquired would be lost with them if they were gunned down by the Geth or an atom bomb.

He found the words tumbling out of his mouth, and he wasn't even sure why he'd made the decision the way he did, only that it was final and total. "Joker, meet us with the _Normandy_ at the control tower. Kaidan, be ready for evac in five minutes."

"I-," the lieutenant's voice choked back over the comms, "yes, Commander."

"It's the right choice, and you know it LT!" Ashley sounded as he always did while in combat – resolute, determined, and stoic. "Good hunting Shepard. I'll see you at the end."

"Ashley? I'm sorry."

That was it then. It was done, the decision made. Time was of the essence, and Shepard wasted no time in making good on his decision. The three of them sprinted towards the base of the control tower, ducking and dodging through rounds of tracer-fire that the Geth above them were now pouring down. Two more transports flew overhead, both rocketing towards the landing courtyard to deposit more troops.

Shepard reached the foot of the tower and quickly ascended the several flights of stairs between the base and the control room. Two descending Geth attempted to stop him, and were quickly smashed into the wall by a pair of biotic-fuelled punches. From the base of the stairwell, Garrus managed to place a well-aimed bullet straight through the skull of a Krogan mercenary at the top of the stairs, and Shepard had to throw himself against the wall to avoid its giant frame as it plummeted towards the floor, blood streaming from an enormous head wound. They quickly reached the top of the staircase and burst into the control room.

Though it once must have been a luxurious and well-equipped station, capable of manipulating the automated defenses, shields, cloaking and detection devices, as well as a host of other instruments, the control room had since degenerated into utter chaos. Panels of instruments sat burned out and charred by the small fires that continued to sweep through the chamber. Where once an enormous glass screen had provided a holographic projection of the entire base and its monitoring systems, only the skeletal frame remained, the rest shredded to a fine powder by the sheer number of bullets that had been traded back and forth. The bodies of Geth, Krogan and Salarians littered the floor, and Shepard had to struggle to keep his balance as he slipped and slid on the thin layer of blood and lubricating fluid that coated the floors. The remnants of Kirrahe's plaoon were clustered around the raised central platform. Kirrahe and Kaidan still lived, as did nine other Salarians. Rentola sat against one of the inner instrument panels, clutching at a steadily-worsening stomach wound. Geth were everywhere, and they seemed content to simply throw endless rounds of crossfire at the raised platform as the Salarians vainly attempted to break out of their boxed-in position. The exhaustion and stress were clearly showing on Ashley's face as she killed another Geth trooper with her shotgun.

Shepard, Liara and Garrus fanned out as they advanced into the control room, each attacking a separate column of Geth as they sought to meet up with the remainder of the STG Team. Garrus deployed an overload in the midst of a large group of Geth Shock Troopers, downing five of them with the electronic burst before felling another two with his assault rifle. Liara caught another column of the synthetics with her Biotic Singularity, which Shepard quickly combined with his own biotic attacks to incinerate them in a massive explosion of biotic energy. The Geth turned from their onslaught against the Salarians and shifted their focus to fight these new enemies, yet quickly found themselves losing ground to the three commandos in their midst. Likewise, the Salarians were bolstered by the presence of allies, and they redoubled their efforts to break out of their isolated perch in the centre of the room.

As the last of the Geth and Krogan fell, Shepard moved to help Rentola to his feet. His wound had subsided somewhat, but he still struggled to shift his feet forward; the blood loss was beginning to eat away at his consciousness. "Joker," Shepard shouted into his comm unit, "we're ready for pickup! How soon can you be here?"

"We've cleared the island chain and are swinging back around. ETA three or four minutes."

"Williams, how are you guys holding out?"

"Van Sant and Hawkes are down. Kim, Lee and I are still holding on, though we're starting to see Geth heavies moving in. I'm not sure how much longer we can hold out."

Shepard's thoughts were interrupted by the clanging of a small metal object off the panel beside him. His mind recognized the telltale beep of the proximity grenade before he saw it, and he threw himself at Liara, pinning her underneath him as the proximity charge ignited. He deployed his barrier in a knick of time, and moments later he felt the impact of the grenade against his barrier as he shielded himself and Liara from the blast. The panel behind them was completely engulfed in the blast, and another of Kirrahe's Salarians was thrown bodily into the wall, his skull cracking against the concrete – he died instantly.

Shepard had pushed himself to his feet when the second blast hit, this one from a pistol-launched electronic charge. He turned to see a small hovercraft descending towards the control room, a lone Turian with both feet planted firmly on either side of the craft. Silver armour coated his reptilian body, with several holes and wounds replaced by synthetic technology and prosthetics. His flanged face was purely metallic, devoid of colony markings or tattoos, and his black eyes glowed a light blue, filled with malice and hardened resolve. This was the man that Shepard had hunted these past months, the one who had eluded him at every opportunity, now come for what would surely be the final confrontation, amidst a doomed base with the threat of a nuclear explosion hanging over both their heads. At long last, he had found him: Saren Arterius.

Saren dropped off his hovercraft, a pair of Asari-made Acolyte Pistols firmly gripped in his hands Garrus dipped behind cover and continued to scurry towards the Salarians, while Shepard joined Liara behind one of the few intact instrument panels. Each of the pistols launched a small warp charge, and Shepard felt his biotic powers begin to ebb away as the charge drained biotic energy from the vicinity, culminating in a massive explosion of power that sent tremors through the panel they hid behind. They could only delay this for so long, and Shepard waited for a brief lull in the fighting before drawing his Predator VII pistol and emptying his magazine at a quickly-advancing Saren.

The rogue Spectre made no move to evade the shots, and Shepard watched as the rounds bounced harmlessly off of Saren's biotic barrier. Turians with biotic tendencies were rare, their secretive Cabal units a virtually unknown quantity even to Salarian intelligence, but Saren's powers were clearly augmented and frighteningly potent.

"Well done Shepard," the Turian called to him as he futilely lowered his pistol, "my troops were utterly convinced that the Salarians were the main point of attack; they never saw you coming. I must say, I'm impressed." He holstered both of his Acolyte pistols, pausing to throw a biotic attack against the bulkhead the Salarian commandos were now clustered behind. "Of course, it was all for nothing. I can't let you disrupt what I've accomplished here. You can't possibly understand what's really at stake."

"You bastard," Shepard spat as he holstered his own, "you betrayed Nihlus, you slaughtered the colonists on Eden Prime, you nearly unleashed the goddamn Rachni on the galaxy, and you made a deal with the devil that nearly resulted in an entire colony being destroyed! And then you joined the Reapers, just to go on your own bloody power-trip!"

"You've seen the visions from the Beacons, Shepard. You, of all people should understand what the Reapers are capable of. They cannot be stopped! Do not mire yourself in this pointless revolt. Do not sacrifice everything for the sake of petty freedoms. The Protheans chose to stand and fight, and they were utterly destroyed." Saren walked towards Shepard, projecting calm and reason in his entire stance, "trillions dead. But what if they had bowed before the invaders? Would the Protheans still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction?"

It sounded ridiculous, the very notion that a hypermachine race dedicated to wiping out organic life would even bother to offer negotiations. "Submission under those…_things_…I'd rather die a thousand times."

Saren shook his head in disappointment, "now you see why I never came forward with this to the Council. Organics are too…emotional, driven by feeling instead of logic. We will fight even when we know we cannot win – it's an idea that is ingrained in everything I was taught by the Hierarchy." He shot his right hand forward, seeming almost desperate to convince Shepard of the righteousness of his cause, "but if we work with the Reapers – if we make ourselves useful to them – think of how many lives could be spared!" He walked past one of the Salarians that was struggling to get up, and coldly delivered a powerful biotic blow to his skull, breaking it in an instant. "Once I understood this, I joined Sovereign, though I was aware of the…dangers…from the start. I had hoped that this facility would protect me."

"You're afraid that Sovereign is influencing you," Shepard observed, "you worry that it's controlling your thoughts, just like it controlled Benezia's."

"Contrary to what the Salarians might think, the primary purpose of this facility was not to cure the Genophage – it was to study the effects of the Indoctrination that Sovereign exerts over its subjects. The more control Sovereign exerts, the less capable the subject becomes," Shepard felt a chill run down his spine as he thought back to the Salarian who had vainly tried to claw his way out of the captive pen, his eyes an electric blue from the force of Sovereign's will, "and this…is my saving grace. Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit, and my mind is still my own…for now. But the transformation from ally to servant can be subtle. I will not let it happen to me."

His bravado rang hollow against the balance of the evidence – Saren's actions didn't speak of someone who was cogent or cogniscent of what they were doing. "Sovereign's manipulating you and you don't even know it. You're already under its control!"

"No," Saren shouted back, a hint of desperation in his flanged voice, "Sovereign needs me. If I find the Conduit, I've been promised a reprieve from the inevitable. This is my only hope."

"It's not inevitable. You can still fight Sovereign, we can still stop the Reapers!"

"I…I no longer believe that Shepard," there was a hint of regret and sorrow in his voice, as if this was a path that he did not want to walk, yet felt compelled to, "the Reapers cannot be stopped. Sovereign is a machine, it thinks like a machine. If I can prove my value, I become a resource worth maintaining – organics become a resource worth maintaining. There is no other logical conclusion. I'm not doing this for myself – my way is the only way that any of us survive the coming apocalypse. I'm forging an alliance between us and the Reapers, and by doing so I will save more organic lives than have ever existed!" He regarded Shepard coldly, flaring his biotics in warning, "but you would undo my work – you would doom our civilizations to total annihilation. And for that, you must die."

Saren charged Shepard with incredible speed, faster than he thought a Turian could move with that heavy of armour on. The first blow caught him squarely in the jaw, throwing him back against the instrument panel. He rolled sideways to narrowly avoid the second blow, which shredded the panel into fine durasteel dust. He managed to bring his booted foot around to make contact with Saren's side, giving him time to recover his balance. The two battled across the room, locked in an epic melee of biotic blows. Shepard eventually managed to gain a hold on Saren's shoulder, raining down a series of punches on his upper body and driving him back towards the edge of the control room's floor. At the last moment the Turian twisted with unnatural speed, landing a blow on Shepard's face and stunning him backwards. He recovered quickly, swinging his left foot in an arced circle that tripped Saren to the ground. As he made to land a killing blow on Saren's face, the Turian kicked upwards violently, propelling Shepard violently into the ceiling, and he landed with a crash of steel and bones on the other side of several instrument panels.

Both drew their sidearms, and in moments they were cycling around the room, pacing twenty feet apart from each other and firing volley after volley of bullets between them. Liara tossed Shepard her pistol, and both threw themselves behind cover as Saren fire several of the warp charges from his Acolyte pistols in their direction. Shepard rolled out of cover and fired a stream of shots at Saren, but the Turian was too quick and evaded him once again. He tried to follow his target but quickly lost sight of him amidst the maze of computers and instruments.

Saren found him before he could locate the Turian, and the gloved hand that clasped around the back of his neck violently told him that he had made a fatal error of judgement – he had allowed Saren to get behind him. The rogue Spectre lifted him bodily in the air, his strength overwhelming as Shepard struggled against his grip. Saren carried him to the very edge of the control room's floor, lifting him high in the air in a display of triumph. He could see stars in his vision as the flow of oxygen was starved from his body. He couldn't last long against this.

Shepard saw a moment of hope as the evacuation sirens grabbed Saren's attention. The facility was in full lockdown and evac as what little remained of central control realized the presence of the bomb. Saren's moment of hesitation was exactly what Shepard needed. He brought his clenched fist firmly into contact with Saren's face and bruised his knuckles as the Turian recoiled in pain, dropping him to the floor. His head reeling from the bursts of air flowing through his body, Shepard turned to get a shot off at Saren, yet only saw the last glimpse of his boot as he stepped back onto his hovercraft and propelled himself skyward.

He saw the _Normandy_ descend towards the control tower, and he faintly heard Joker's voice over the comms, but his fury at letting Saren get away drowned out his surroundings He was slightly aware of his shouted appeals to withdraw to Kirrahe and the Salarians, of Garrus and Liara dragging Kaidan bodily towards the _Normandy_'s cargo door, and of the deafening silence as the hatch closed around them, the surviving Salarians on board.

"Joker, get us the hell out of here, as far away from this planet as you can."

Ashley saw Lee fall to the ground, his shields pierced by the barrage of Geth weapons fire that was pouring towards them. Her own shields had overloaded close to a minute ago, and her armour was barely holding on under the strain of the onslaught. They'd succeeded thus far in their objective – the Geth had yet to get close to the bomb, and as long as Shepard managed to evac the Salarians and Ash, they wouldn't be able to disarm it.

She felt a sharp pain in her side as the first shot from the pulse rifle punched through her armour and struck her in the stomach. She spun his assault rifle in the direction of the attacker and dispatched it with a hint of satisfaction. She downed another, and another, then another with another burst, yet still more of them came. She felt more shots rip through her body, drawing blood at her chest and shoulder. Pain began to overwhelm her, her shots slowed in their frequency as bullet after bullet tore through the armour. Her knee gave out as a shot passed through it, and she crawled and limped to the rear of the bob to find cover from the Geth.

She was about to give into the pain when he heard the reassuring roar of the _Normandy_'s engines scream overhead, as the frigate raced across the sunlit sky. The force of the engines kicked up dust and wind around the bomb, throwing several of the Geth back and into the far wall. She heard the last of the chatter in his ear that told her that Kaidan and the Salarians were aboard; she smiled to himself, knowing that her comrades were safe.

She only had four shots left in her assault rifle before it would overheat beyond the point of repair, so she had to make them count. She pinpointed the first into one of the large tanks of volatile fuel chemicals near the back of the landing pad, touching off several heavy Geth units in a colossal fireball that swept through the courtyard. The second caught a Geth Shock Trooper in the face-plate, and the third shot out the leg of a Geth Juggernaut that had been advancing on her.

The next shot cut through her gun-hand and shredded her omnitool to scrap metal, rendering both the last of her weapons useless. Another tore through her stomach, spilling blood across the upper dome of the armed drive core. Her strength failing her, she mustered every last bit of willpower he had to bring her hand down on the pad that triggered the overload sequence.

_"Warning: Core overload imminent. Estimated detonation in twenty seconds."_

She watched in the reflection of the water as the _Normandy_ disappeared from his view, and he suddenly felt a gut-wrenching fear in her bones. She knew she would die here – she had known since the moment the first of the Geth began to deploy on the landing pad, yet she still found himself gripped in terror. Frozen in fear, she turned for comfort to the most basic instinct of humanity, one that had been with them since the dawning of civilization.

"Lord, you have searched me out and known me," she intoned the words almost silently as his hands gripped tighter and tighter against the metallic frame of the bomb, "you know my sitting down and my rising up," the beeps of the timer, ever-increasing in frequency, filtered themselves out of his head, "you discern my thoughts from afar."

Shepard watched through the lone porthole of the _Normandy_, his face a mask of calm as he watched Virmire's surface disappear, waiting for the inevitable.

"Indeed, there is not a word on my lips but you know it altogether," the fear began to subside, a sense of peace overtook her as the tracers flying over her head were reduced to mere chatter, "you press upon me behind and before, and lay your hand upon me," she brought her limp and bloodied hand to her forehead, then her abdomen, and then across her chest from left to right. She could die here, confident that she had succeeded in her mission, "where can I go then from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I climb up to Heaven you are there; if I make the grave my bed you are there also. If I take the wings of morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me. Your right hand will-,"

A blinding light and a searing heat filled her vision for an instant, the force of a thousand suns burning against her, and then all was dark and silent.

**Captain's Cabin – SSV **_**Normandy**_**, Century Omega Cluster – one hour later**

Shepard stared into the void as the _Normandy_ raced towards the Mass Relay out of the Century Omega Cluster. He had watched as the massive fireball consumed the entire island chain on Virmire, enveloping everything in its path and wiping all traces of life from the area. Ashley had died instantly, of that much he was certain.

It was not a decision he had enjoyed making; it wasn't one that any commander would wish upon his greatest rival in a thousand years. Even now, Shepard's emotions reeled at the loss of one of his crewmembers – a fellow Marine, a fellow soldier, and a sympathetic, ambitious soul who had brought such a lively intensity to her duties, which she performed with excellence. She was now the fourteenth Marine lost under Shepard's command, and the second of his dog-tags already bore the etched marks of a combat knife in their reverse side. He would carry them for the rest of his life, a reminder of the sacrifice that Ashley and her four fellow marines had made.

Kaidan had been beside himself as they dragged him back onto the _Normandy_ and Joker began the evacuation protocols. Shepard had expected it to take a long time to calm him, yet before the blast had even occurred he was seated in the medical bay in complete silence, simply staring ahead with a glazed over stare that Shepard had seen on himself so many times before. His mood had carried over to the rest of the Alliance crew, most of whome had subsided into a mournful silence; several had created a small memorial wall behind the Galaxy Map – a small memento to those who had served beside them, and a promise that they would not be forgotten.

Shepard found himself trembling, but with very different emotions and for very different reasons. The shock of the realization that _Sovereign_ was an actual Reaper, the revealing of its intentions and of the origin of the Mass Relays – it was almost too much to bear. His entire conception of what they were fighting for, what their mission was, and their priorities seemed to have been turned on its head. Saren was not the enemy – he was merely another puppet in _Sovereign_'s ruthless quest for the annihilation of organic life. Even now, he could still hear _Sovereign_'s voice ringing through his head, its dark and omniscient tendrils touching at the fabric of his mind and seeking to turn it, to control it and bend it to its will. The feeling sent shudder up his spine. How did you fight something like that?

As insightful as the new information they had received from the Beacon, Sovereign and Saren was, it still didn't put him much closer to understanding what the Conduit was; the vision was clearer, more complete, but it still presumed a great deal of knowledge on the part of the viewer that Shepard simply didn't have – couldn't have. The lights were gradually growing brighter, but they were still very much fumbling in the dark.

The sound of his cabin door sliding open interrupted his thoughts as Liara entered the room on padded feet. She bore the same look of concern that had dotted the faces of the entire crew for the last hour, unsure of how Shepard would react to the death of five of his subordinates. Shepard turned to face her as she entered the room.

"Is there something you wanted to see me about, Shepard?" Her voice was hopeful, enthused and prodding.

He nodded, and her face lit up, "strictly business though," that brought a slight droop to her face, but it was quickly replaced by a professional enthusiasm. "The Beacon completed the vision, made it far clearer than it was before, but you know the Protheans better than I do. I'd like to link minds with you again, see if you can fill in the blanks on the details."

Liara didn't answer, but simply put her hand on his cheek, drawing him close until his eyes were locked with hers. He could feel the electricity and warmth on her fingers as they pulsed against his skin, and his own heartrate accelerated at their proximity. She closed her eyes, inhaling slowly as they both relaxed their minds in preparation for the attunement. "Shepard, embrace eternity!"

For the second time, he felt the world around him melt away as his senses became fixed solely on the fiery images of the Beacon. He could sense Liara's shock at their clarity, and he subconsciously moved to take her free hand in hers. He felt her mind and body relax in his sure grip, and she concentrated fully on the vision in front of her. The images flew by rapidly, as she examined and intook them with ease. He felt her draw in a breath as the vision reached its apocalyptic conclusion, a single orb of fire and rock in the midst of the void, then a system of five planets hidden from the world. _Where only the Electors of Pangea dared to walk, you will find salvation_. The words rang through his mind, over and over again, filling him with a mix of hope and dread. At last they stood before Sovereign, its steel-carbon tentacles outstretched in preparation for the unleashing of its wrath against the Protheans.

The linking of their minds ended sharply, and the world pulled back into focus with a slight shock to the head. His cabin swam before him in his vision, and he was only faintly aware of Liara across from him, her eyes still shut in concentration.

They burst open in a flash, a spark of life and intensity playing into them as a single name escaped her throat. "Ilos!" She took a moment to reacclimatize to her surroundings, then stared directly into his eyes, "the Conduit is on Ilos!"

"Ilos? I think you mentioned it to me before."

"It was a Prothean planet near the edge of the Galactic Core. It's unique in that not a single firsthand record or account of the planet survives – it's only mentioned in secondary sources, and even then it's sparse and rare for Ilos to be mentioned."

"Is that what's through the Mu Relay?"

"It must be. The exact path to Ilos was lost millennia ago – every century or so an Asari university's archaeology department would investigate the possibility of an FTL voyage to Ilos, but it was always deemed too impractical. The Mu Relay must lead through – it's the only explanation as to why Saren would have been so obsessed with its location. Shepard, we need to get to Ilos as quickly as possible; Saren may already be there!"

Shepard shook his head, "If Ilos really is the location of the Conduit, Saren will be there with the full might of Sovereign and the Geth fleet; we'd be slaughtered. I'm taking this to the Council – we need the might of the Hierarchy, the Union and the Republics behind us if we're going to pull this off."

He looked at her a moment longer, and part of him wanted to take her in his arms again, to feel her embrace against his, but both of them were so single-mindedly focused on the mission itself that the impulse was quickly buried beneath his burning desire to put an end to this threat. Liara clearly felt the same, for she quickly left his cabin, calling back in her hypnotic voice that if he needed her, she'd be in the lab analyzing the latest Prothean data they had retrieved.

Shepard quickly went to his terminal, hammering out a stark and vivid report to the Council on the nature of the situation, noting in particular the sacrifices of both the Salarians and his own Marines, the true nature of the threat posed by Saren and Sovereign, and the new information they had gained on both the Protheans and Sovereign itself.

The reply came over the most heavily encrypted channels open to the Council, and was as diplomatic and decisive as it was cryptic.

_Commander John C. Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, SSV Normandy_

_You are hereby ordered to return at once to the Citadel on board the SSV __Normandy__. Beta Platoon under Captain Kirrahe will disembark for a full briefing of Union Special Tasks Command, and is hereby awarded the Silver Dagger on the recommendation of Councillor Valern. _

_You are also authorized for a Priority One meeting with the members of the Citadel Councillor, as well as Ambassador D. Udina of the Human Systems Alliance, to be attended at the nearest possible convenience._

_Time is of the essence._

_Councillor Tevos of the Asari Republics_

_Councillor Valern of the Salarian Union_

_Councillor Sparatus of the Turian Hierarchy_

Joker seemed to have received the exact same message, and Shepard was thrown against the bulkhead of his cabin as the _Normandy_ pulled a hairpin turn that shuddered the crossbeams of armour that held the ship together. The FTL burst caught him equally by surprise, sending him sprawling back onto his bed, butterflies roaring through his stomach.

"I can have you at the nearest Relay inside of twenty minutes Commander. We'll be at the Citadel in two hours; I hope they're ready for you."

So did he, and he prayed that they took the threat as seriously as he did, that they listened to reason, to evidence, and that – for once – someone in a position of power would listen to him.

Or the sun would set on the races of the galaxy for the last time.


	12. Chapter 11: Sure on this Shining Night

**As of two hours ago, the final main chapter is completed, with the draft topping out at 140,000 words. With just the epilogue left to write, the draft will be complete and revised by Christmas.  
**

**The last scene in this chapter had a number of inspirations. In terms of prior writing, Theodosius's _Making Things Right_ provided a good starting point. Most of the inspiration was musical, notably Eric Whitacre's "Alleluia". If you feel like adding that particularly glorious number to the background, the link on YouTube is "/watch?v=Rak_rJLG49k". Also key for inspiration was Morten Lauridsen's _O Magnum Mysterium_, which can also be found on the aforementioned site at "/watch?v=pyDKVO1LjxQ"  
**

_**Chapter 11: Sure on the Shining Night**_

"_Sure on this shining night  
Of star made shadows round,  
Kindness must watch for me  
This side the ground.  
The late year lies down the north.  
All is healed, all is health.  
High summer holds the earth.  
Hearts all whole.  
Sure on this shining night I weep for wonder wand'ring far  
alone  
Of shadows on the stars."_

**SSV **_**Normandy**_**, Docking Bay B27, Citadel Wards, Widow Nebula – Three hours later**

The _Normandy_ screamed into the Alliance docking bay on the Citadel, its nose barely grazing the forcefields that protected the structure from wayward debris and errant pilots. David Anderson watched from a catwalk as the docking arm connected with the _Normandy_'s airlock, and was surprised at the speed with which the crew disembarked. Four engineers scampered out of the cargo hold and onto the outer hull of the frigate, tethered by titanium cables to the body of the ship as they slithered aft to inspect the engines and kinetic barrier projectors after a full day of low-altitude evasive flying. Two Alliance mechanic teams joined them, their hovering shuttles providing them with a wealth of equipment and tools as dents in the armour were repaired, the deuterium fuel supply was replenished, and several fully-stocked crates of weapons and ammunition were loaded into the cargo bay.

The Salarians were the first through the airlock; the nine surviving members of the platoon barely acknowledged Anderson's presence as they passed by him towards the already-waiting Union shuttle. They would be held in quarantine for several days, as was Union protocol, while the intel from their mission was collected and analyzed fully by STG Command. Kirrahe nodded silently at him, a gesture which Anderson returned with equal passivity. Shepard was the next off, outfitted in his formal officer's uniform and closely followed by Garrus Vakarian and Liara T'Soni. Behind them, Doctor Chakwas emerged bearing five thin sheets of metal, each with the name and rank of one of the five Alliance Marines who had died on Virmire. She shuffled past Shepard and Anderson silently, bound for the Alliance Headquarters on the Citadel.

Shepard had barely moved within talking distance of Udina before he jumped right into the conversation. "Did the Council get my reports?"

Anderson nodded, "they were surprising, to say the least. I'll let them give you the full briefing in the Citadel Tower."

The four of them entered a waiting Alliance shuttle, which quickly embarked them towards the Citadel Tower. "Let's hope they do," Shepard remarked as they sailed past the Wards and onwards towards the Presidium, "we lost a lot of good people on Virmire trying to get that intel."

It was eating at him, Anderson could tell that much. "How are you holding up Shepard? It's hard for any officer to lose soldiers under their command, let alone for you."

He nodded, staring almost lifelessly out of the starboard window of the shuttle. "I had to make a choice, Anderson," he turned to face his old commander, his eyes hollow and filled with the pain of memory, "I could either save them, or Kaidan and the Salarians. I decided that intel was more important," he closed his eyes as he relived the choice, "I chose to let them die."

"I'm not questioning your decision Shepard. Hell, you probably had more resolve making that decision than most generals would, and you actually knew the people that you were leaving to die."

"They won't have died for nothing," Garrus interjected as Shepard lapsed into solemn silence, "once the Council hears about Sovereign and the Geth, it'll only be a matter of time before we end this."

Anderson just hoped that he was right.

**Council Chambers – Citadel Tower – ten minutes later**

Shepard bounded up the steps of the Council's expansive chambers, barely pausing to acknowledge the presence of the few diplomats and bureaucrats still left in the vast hall. The trappings of state and power were all around him, and he could feel in the ornate decoration of the room, the sense of perfect order that seemed to permeate everything from the positioning of the benches to the shape of the trees, that this was where true power lay in Citadel Space. As powerful and as mighty as the commanders of the Alliance or the Hierarchy were, neither Admiral Coryn or Primarch Fedorian could hope to match the diplomatic and military might of the three individuals arrayed in front of him. As before, each of the Councillors stood in front of their own pedestal, eyeing Ambassador Udina, who stood on the outstretched speaking platform directly across the gap from the Councillors.

"Ah, Shepard," Udina greeted him as they approached, "excellent work. Thanks to you, the Council has finally agreed to take action against Saren and the Geth." It sounded too good to be true, but could it be?

Tevos seemed to sense his hesitation and nodded to both of them, "the Ambassador is correct, Shepard. If Saren is foolish enough to attack the Citadel, as you believe, we will be ready for him."

Sparatus tapped several keys on his omnitool and brought up a miniaturized display of a Galaxy Map, indicating several highlighted areas. "We have patrols stationed at every Mass Relay that links to the Terminus systems. The Asari First Fleet and Turian Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Cruiser Divisions are stationed at the Citadel alongside the _Destiny Ascension_. The Salarian Second, Turian Fourth, Asari Third and Alliance Fifth Fleets are all within one Relay jump of the Citadel, while the Turian Fifth Fleet is guarding the main Relay gate to the Omega Nebula, which Hierarchy intelligence concludes is the most likely point of entry should Saren try to attack the Citadel."

The Councillors and Udina had probably expected affirmation and praise from their newest and most high-profile Spectre, but they were unpleasantly surprised. "That's it? A blockade? You honestly think a blockade is going to stop Saren? He's on Ilos searching for the Conduit _right now_. What are we doing about that?"

"Ilos is only accessible through the Mu Relay, which is positioned deep within the Terminus Systems," Valern observed, "if we send a fleet in there, the only possible outcome is full-scale war. We have been fortunate since the Skylian Blitz that factionalist politics have stopped most serious threats to the Traverse, but the arrival of Hierarchy or Union forces in the region would surely unite the Terminus cartels against us."

"Shepard, now is the time for discretion, not for blindly rushing into the unknown," Udina cautioned, "Saren's greatest weapon was secrecy. Exposed, he is no longer a threat. This is over."

"That's bullshit, and you both know it," Shepard levelled accusingly at both Valern and Udina, "one ship going into the Terminus Systems won't start a war. Send the _Normandy_; I can be discrete."

"Discrete?!" Sparatus scoffed at the notion, "you detonated a ten megaton fusion bomb on Virmire, right in the middle of the Terminus Systems. I'd hardly call that a 'discrete' operation."

Tevos nodded in agreement, glancing sideways at the Salarian and Turian Councillors, "your style served you well in the Traverse; we recognize that. But Ilos requires a deft touch; we have the situation under control."

"Secrecy isn't his greatest weapon – The Conduit is."

Valern shook his head, eyeing Shepard sternly, "Saren is a master manipulator. The Conduit is just a distraction from his real plan to attack the Citadel."

"It's not even his plan anymore; it never was. Sovereign is the real threat – Saren's just a servant of the Reapers." Shepard could tell that he was fighting a losing battle, but he kept hoping, _begging_ that the three leaders standing in front of him would see reason.

He hoped in vain. "Only you have seen 'the Reapers', and then only in visions. We aren't going to invade the Terminus Systems because of a dream."

This was it, the final, desperate attempt to get them to do what was needed. "I'm not asking you to invade the Terminus Systems; I'm not asking you to send a fleet or an armada. I'm asking you to send me."

"Ambassador Udina," Sparatus spoke suddenly, "I get the feeling that Commander Shepard isn't willing to let this go."

Udina turned on Shepard, shifting from political friend to foe in a matter of seconds. "There are serious political implications here Shepard. Humanity has made great gains due to your actions, but now you're becoming more trouble than you're worth."

Behind Shepard, realization dawned on Garrus's face as he comprehended what was happening. "Oh you slimy bastard. You just sold out the man who saved your career, and might yet save your species."

Udina either didn't hear, or simply chose not to pay the comment any mind, "It's just politics Commander. You've done your job, now let me do mine. We've locked out all the _Normandy_'s primary systems – weapons, engines, shields, communications. Until further notice, consider yourself grounded."

He turned to say more, but Shepard had already left. The last sight he had was of him and his Asari and Turian companions storming out of the Council chambers.

**Mess Hall – SSV **_**Normandy**_** [Locked Down], Docking Bay B27**

Shepard tugged at the door to his weapons locker, furiously punching in the code to unlock it. He was nearly blinded by insufferable rage, and he could barely see what he was doing. The door blinked back red at him, asking him to rekey the passcode. He felt his anger well up inside him, and his clenched fist connect with the door, denting the metal inwards. Cursing, the universe having turned against him, Shepard slowly shifted himself to lean his back against the shell of his locker.

There were no words to describe the cold fury that was boiling over in his gut, that indelible and undirected anger that threatened to consume him. He had expected doubt from Udina – disbelief, reluctance, even a blatant refusal to acknowledge the reality of what now confronted them – but this? This was different. They had clipped his wings, Udina glibly playing along in a vainglorious attempt to further his own position within Citadel politics. He wanted on that Council, Shepard was sure of it, and he had sold out humanity's best hope for survival to serve his own vanity and lust for power.

If they couldn't get to Ilos, they were doomed. He still didn't know what the Conduit was, but he was damn sure that he'd need to set foot on the mythical Prothean planet to use it, or at least stop Saren from doing so. Sovereign had spoken as if there were thousands more like it, and it would take a miracle to kill one of them, let alone an entire fleet of the things. No matter how many times he thought the situation over, there simply didn't look like there was a way out of this mess either. The security surrounding Citadel control was ridiculous, and only Udina would have offsite access to the console commands necessary to override the lockdown. He racked his brain, straining to think of a possibility for escape, yet try as he might he could not come up with anything.

Rage welling up in him again, he threw his fist at the locker beside his, punching the door clean out of its hinges and leaving him with a set of thoroughly bruised knuckles. His vision began to haze over in red, but it quickly dissipated at the sound of light footsteps moving towards him.

"Shepard, I cannot believe they did this to you," Liara knelt beside him, her hand moving reassuringly to his shoulder, "I am so sorry."

He sighed and lightly threw his head back against the door panel of his locker. "Don't be. It's not your fault."

"It's not right! You did everything they asked and more!" Her voice broke a little as she became angrier and angrier, "the council owes you everything – Everything! And what do they do? They strip you of your command and ground the _Normandy_." Her voice dropped suddenly to almost a whisper, and Shepard had to strain to hear what she was saying, "when your Ambassador sold you out, I wanted to hit him with a biotic field so hard that his body would be somewhere near Thessia by now."

Shepard chuckled a little at the image that flashed through his mind, and then sighed slowly as he exhaled and closed his eyes in exasperation. "I don't care if they ground me, but they refused to go after Saren." He opened his eyes and regarded her with a fixating stare, "if they don't stop him, we all die. Not just you and me, not just them – everyone who has ever lived."

She knew this – he could see it in her eyes, but he had to keep telling it to himself to remind him just what the stakes were. "We have to think of something. There must be a way to get off this station!"

"I pushed them as hard as I could," he fumed, "they wouldn't budge. I tried to think of anything, _anything_, that would get us off of the Citadel, but there's nothing. We're grounded – our wings our clipped, and our fate is doomed."

Liara's expression changed, shifting from one of reassuring comfort to a cold demeanour. "So you're just going to walk away? You're going to give up and doom the entire galaxy to extinction?" Her hand went back to her shoulder, her pressured grip sending ripples of warmth through his entire body, "we lost the battle, not the war. We can do this." Her eyes made contact with his, "I believe in you. I am with you every step of the way. Please Shepard, do this for me; figure this out."

She relinquished her grip on his shoulder and extended her hand in an offering. He willingly took it, using her as a counterweight to pull himself back up to a standing position. His face fell perilously close to hers. He could feel her ragged breathing against his face, could sense the warm blush creeping up her neck and into her face, darkening her beautiful blue skin to a hypnotic purple. Her eyes locked with his – at long last, they were alone, the threat of Saren and Sovereign forgotten as they basked in the glory of each other. He felt his lips brush lightly against his, the beginnings of a kiss forming between the two of them.

"Sorry to interrupt Commander," Joker seemed to intuitively _know_ what the worst possible time to contact Shepard would be, "but I've got a message from Captain Anderson waiting for you on the bridge. He says to meet him in the Wards – the Flux Nightclub, I think he mentioned."

Shepard sighed in frustration as he watched the light in Liara's eyes dim slightly. "Time to go. Duty calls," he muttered reluctantly as Liara slipped her hand out of his grasp. He turned away for a moment, ready to follow up instructions to Joker, but when he turned back Liara was gone. He caught the briefest of glimpses of her as she retreated into the confines of the medical bay and back to her quarters in the lab.

He keyed Joker onto his omnitool and glanced up at the intercom, "I don't suppose that you were spying on your captain, were you Flight Lieutenant?"

Joker chuckled, "nope, just saw that you were actually on the ship. Besides, we could hear your fuming up here on the Bridge."

"Did Anderson give any indication of what he wanted?"

"He just said to meet him at Flux, and as quickly as possible."

"Tell Kaidan and Garrus to meet me at the airlock ASAP."

The two of them were at the airlock in minutes, both fully equipped and outfitted as if for combat. "Good Lord," Shepard remarked as they joined him in the depressurization chamber, "I didn't know that the Wards were that dangerous for security."

"Once you've worked in C-SEC, nothing surprises you anymore," Garrus commented as they felt the pressure shift in the chamber to the higher pressure of the Citadel's artificial life support.

The airlock swivelled open to allow them entry to the dock, and they were surprised to find the docking bay completely deserted. The repairs and technical fixes had been completed hours ago, and the Alliance mechanics had long since departed to service the _Cannae_ in dock further up the Wards. There were no guards to watch their movements – they were confined to the Citadel, not the _Normandy_, and even if they had contemplated escape the controls of the frigate were physically barred from Joker's tampering, despite the best efforts of Tali, who seemed almost lacklustre in her hacking ability following Ashley's death; it had clearly taken a toll on the whole of the crew.

"Alright, let's go see what Anderson's got for us."

**Flux Nightclub – Citadel Wards, Widow Nebula**

The assault on his senses was bombastic as Shepard's eyes and ears adjusted to the dim light and overwhelming noise of the Flux nightclub. Located in the midst of the Lower Wards, the cultural heart of the Citadel itself, Flux was a relatively new establishment, opened and operated by Doran, a former Volus trader who had settled on the Citadel after a long career of transporting Volus foodstuffs between their colonies. The club catered to the entire population of the Citadel, and it showed in the decorum and the staff; human waitresses conversed freely with Turian customers, who danced to the pulsing beats of Asari music or bet (and frequently lost) their credits at the Salarian game of Quasar. It was, in essence, a microcosm of the entirety of Citadel space, with every species and client race present in some form.

It took them some time to navigate through the massive crowd near the entrance of the club, but they finally found Anderson seated at a table in the far corner, well away from the dance floor and the Quasar terminals. Balancing a small tumbler of Human Whiskey in his right hand, he was dressed in plainclothes, and carried a knowing look on his face that said he knew exactly what had happened, and knew exactly what Shepard was feeling.

"I wanted to warn you, but I couldn't get a message through without Udina or one of his lackeys knowing," he said as the three of them sat down at his table.

"I expected them to react skeptically to the intel we sent them, but I wasn't expecting to be grounded by my own Ambassador after saving his political ass five or six times in the last two months," Shepard replied, not even trying to hide the exasperation in his voice.

"I know you're pissed off, but you can't let that stop you. You have to get off this station – you have to stop Saren from finding The Conduit. If you don't, there won't be any of us left come morning, no matter what the Council might say."

"We've tried to think of everything – no one on the _Normandy_ had any solid ideas on how to get the lockdown overridden."

Anderson regarded Shepard with what he thought might be the beginnings of a smirk, "that's because you don't know this station well enough. The Central Control Mainframe is located several levels below the Council chambers in the Citadel Tower. It's patrolled by armed guards and is under near-constant surveillance. It would be difficult, but I could probably sneak in and manually override the lock on the _Normandy_'s controls."

It sounded risky – suicidal, even, but it seemed like the only option. He could hear the reluctance in Anderson's voice when he offered up, so he probed to see if there was anything else they could do. "That seems awfully risky. Are there any other options we can take?"

"Maybe. If Udina was the one who ordered the lockdown of the _Normandy_, then his terminal will have the ability to override it. I could break into his office and hack his terminal." He could see the knowing look in Kaidan's eye, and quickly added "I'll just have to hope that he isn't there."

It was an easy decision from Shepard's point of view, "break into Udina's office. We don't need you risking your life against Citadel Guards in the control room."

"I was hoping you'd say that; I wasn't looking forward to fighting a platoon of C-SEC Turians. Get back to the _Normandy_ as quick as you can. I'll go deal with Udina when you're there." Anderson nodded as Shepard, Garrus and Kaidan turned to leave, "and Shepard? Good luck. I don't need to tell you how many lives are riding on you pulling this off. Godspeed."

**SSV **_**Normandy**_** – 20 minutes later**

The waiting, the damn waiting was agony. They had practically sprinted back to the ship, pausing only when their route forced them into one of the Citadel's seemingly-endless elevators. The ship had been refuelled and rearmed when she had landed, and the crew was ready in a heartbeat. Shepard had been frank with them – they were stealing their own ship, violating about two hundred Alliance regulations and another three hundred Council ones. If they survived, or if they were caught, they would in all likelihood be court martialled, paraded before the Alliance Brass and stripped of their ranks, their commissions, their pay, and quite possibly their freedom; they could very well spend the rest of their lives behind bars in a prison ship orbiting Arcturus. He had offered them a choice – if any of them wanted, they could disembark before the ship left, so long as they didn't alert Citadel authorities until after the _Normandy_ had cleared the Widow Nebula's Mass Relay.

To a man, they had stayed. Corporal Silas Crosby, who only a month earlier had questioned Shepard's decision to have non-humans on board the frigate, had spoken it best on behalf of the whole crew: "As far as we're concerned, commander, this isn't an Alliance vessel – never was; it's yours, and we will follow you to until death takes us." Joker had led the crew in a rousing ovation of applause that nearly brought a tear of emotion to Shepard's eye, before they had all assumed Battle Stations – and waited for the lockdown to end.

Now they stood on the bridge, all staring intently at the main omni-panel for the _Normandy's _controls. The plethora of monitors, keys and switches had been replaced by a single red orb that stared back at them transfixed, refusing to move or give way to the actual controls. Joker strummed his fingers against the side of his chair, the exasperation on his face plain. "This seems like it's taking too long. Maybe something's happened to Anderson – maybe Udina was there, maybe there were guards. Maybe he was found out and is in custody too." He glanced nervously at Shepard, "maybe we should send someone after him, or try to check in."

"He'll be fine, Joker. He was a Spectre Candidate once – he can handle a couple of guards and a coward of an Ambassador."

"I somehow doubt Udina's seen military service, given his demeanour and complete lack of knowledge when it comes to tactics or strategy," Garrus mused to Shepard's right, "now _there's_ an argument in favour of compulsory service in the military if I ever saw one."

"Yeah we get it," Joker snapped, "every single one of your Primarchs has spilt blood and fought and died for the cause."

The panel in front of them suddenly lit up, and the red orb began to flash brightly in a strange sequence of bursts. Moments later, it disappeared, replaced by the warmed up and ready controls for the frigate. Joker's face lit up as the lockdown ended, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. The powers that be have decided to let us actually go and save the galaxy now, and in a few moments we'll be gunning it from here to the Pangean Expanse; buckle up everyone!"

The _Normandy_'s engines roared to life in moments, and Joker carefully maneuvered her out of the docking berth. He floored the throttles for all four engines, sending the ship racing towards the Widow Nebula. The first two minutes of their frantic departure were terrifying – would they be fired on? Would the cluster of Turian cruisers in orbit around the Citadel move to intercept them? – but calm seemed to permeate the crew as the ship was enveloped in the blue sparks of the Mass Relay, sending them propelling halfway across the galaxy.

Joker cracked his knuckles as the _Normandy_ hit open space. "It'll be about eight hours from here to the Mu Relay, commander. You may want to get some rest."

Shepard nodded, "today would be a poor day to be off my game."

"Yeah, well, the fate of several species and trillions of lives is riding on every decision you make down on Ilos, and the slightest screwup could mean we're all doomed, so yeah – no pressure."

Shepard descended the stairs to the Crew Quarters, passing several other crew members as he entered the Mess Hall. Garrus, Tali and Kaidan were descending to the cargo hold to clean weapons and do a final series of checks on the Mako in preparation for its probable use on Ilos. Wrex was on his way to the Command Room, where he had arrayed the entirety of his arsenal of weapons to check and recheck every fact and mod in his possession.

"So, we're on the run from the Council, but we're finally moving to flush out Saren," Wrex noted as he passed Shepard on the stairs. Shepard nodded, "good. My people learned a long time ago what it took to tell the Council to go fuck itself; I'm glad to see humanity has the same quads necessary to do so."

There was something in the air between them, a sort of unseen force that hung as a barrier. "Wrex, what happened on Virmire-,"

Wrex cut him off, "you were right Shepard. My people in Saren's pocket would not have been good for anyone. We would have been slaves, just as we were to the Salarians when they needed us to purge the Rachni." He leaned close to Shepard, blocking the dim lights overhead, "just make sure it was worth something. My species is still on its deathbed, and that was probably our best chance to get off of it."

"I promise you Wrex – if it's within my power to cure the Genophage, I will." Wrex simply nodded in approval before continuing up the staircase towards the command room.

Shepard reached his cabin and sat down in front of his terminal, idly keying through the logs that Kaidan had recorded of the previous missions on the _Normandy_. It was astounding to think that less than two months ago, none of this would have even been possible. Shepard had still been the dark horse of the Alliance, a tragic figure and a war-weary and wounded veteran; Eden Prime had been just another idyllic colony world, and the idea of a human Spectre had still been a pipe dream to Alliance politicians and admirals alike.

What would Ashley have thought of their high-risk flight from the Citadel? Would he have approved? Or what of the nine men and women he had left behind on Akuze – would they view him as a traitor, or would they have recognized the realities that governed his decision? It was impossible to know, but he hoped that he was doing their souls justice.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his cabin's door sliding open. He knew who it was without even having to look up, and he knew he was right when heard Liara's intonations through her breathing. After their interruption earlier, he hadn't been sure when she would see him in private again, but it appeared to be now. He heard her key in the combination to his cabin's door, firmly locking it against intrusion from the outside.

"Shepard," Liara started, her voice trembling.

He looked at her, and she seemed more beautiful than he had ever seen her before, even though she was dressed still in her lab uniform. "I'm glad you're here, Liara." He stood up and walked near her, and was relieved when she didn't start at his proximity to her.

"I've been thinking about what we are preparing to face – what we are preparing to do," she swallowed and took a deep breath, her emotions practically flowing through her exhale, "I'm frightened, Shepard," she confessed, "I don't know if we're going to come back alive. I don't know if we can stop Sovereign or if this," she gestured out of his cabin window, "is the last ocean of stars that I will ever see." She looked at him, her eyes gleaming like perfect sapphires in the dark, "and I've been thinking about us – about what you mean to me. When you saved my life on Therum I-, I thought that the Goddess was answering my prayers for rescue." His eyes met hers and he could see her gaze melt in the reflection, "but I'd been waiting for you to answer my prayers for a lot longer than that."

Shepard held his arms out to her and she accepted them eagerly, nestling herself in his embrace. "Liara," he gasped, his voice breaking, "I could have said the same thing to you. You mean so much to me."

She shifted herself until their faces were practically touching, their eyes locked in a visual embrace. "Shepard, this may be our last chance to be with each other, if things go badly on Ilos. I-, I want to make it count."

He caught the meaning in her words instantly, "I thought you said you weren't ready," he noted, pulling his face back slightly from hers.

She shook her head, "I've never been more ready for anything in my life."

She moved closer to him again, her lips hovering over his for several agonizing seconds, until at last they met. As they kissed, Shepard felt his heart begin to race, his pulse climbing rapidly as the feeling of complete bliss spread throughout his body. Her lips were soft, and they eagerly connected with his. He felt her heart beat faster and faster in his embrace, and her right hand moved to caress his face. He heard her moan softly as their kiss deepened, his hand stroking her back, and their tongues connected in a strangely harmonious battle for supremacy.

After six long years of mourning, of lurching between despair and remorse, it felt like waking from a nightmare to glimpse into heaven. He craved every inch of contact – her lips, her hands, and it seemed that Liara felt the same, for she pressed so close to him that he could feel the warmth emanating from her. They broke apart briefly to catch their breaths, yet within moments Liara was kissing him again, sending ripples of joy and euphoria through his body.

She slowly edged him back against the wall, pressing her body up against his as their mouths fought for dominance. Shepard's free hand moved to her shoulder, pulling her so close to him that he could feel her heart beating against his. As one of her hands moved to stroke itself through his short hair, he felt the other one begin to work free his shirt. He responded by dropping his mouth to the sculpted folds of her neck, and a few deftly-placed kisses had her gasping in ecstasy. Her hands continued to work at the hem of his shirt, slowly tugging it over his head and off of his body.

Shepard tried to push back from against the wall but Liara was relentless as she wrapped her legs around his waist, forcing him to shift his left hand to her back to support both of them. Her kisses were relentless, and Shepard faltered as he shifted along the wall, desperate to not have his back propped against the metal bulkheads of his cabin. In the commotion, he felt his back slip over the lighting control, and Liara chuckled through the kiss when the dimly-lit cabin was plunged into near-total darkness. She half-protested when he pushed her back from him slightly, but her sapphire eyes brightened when he began to work the zipper on her lab suit. He wasn't half-done when her lips were on his again, their contact demanding and grasping.

Liara arched her back against his grip to give him room to maneuver, and within moments her shirt joined his on the floor of the cabin. At long last, their skin touched unimpeded, and Shepard could barely restrain himself as he redoubled his own attack on her lips. It was the most glorious thing he had ever felt – the texture of Liara's skin was strange to him, otherworldly, and yet it felt so _right_, as if it weren't meant to be any other way. His heart was beating uncontrollably, and every fibre of his body screamed at him to continue, to take this as far as it could be taken. Liara seemed to sense this, and dropped one of her hands to begin slowly maneuvering her pants down her legs, her lips never leaving his the entire time she did so.

In the dark, it became impossible to see anything, and Shepard groped for Liara's hand as she kicked her clothing into the far corner of the room. She subtly flared her biotics as she pulled away from him, bathing both of them in a soft blue light that illuminated Liara's full, unclad figure for the first time.

"My God," Shepard said almost silently, mesmerized and awed by the angelic sight in front of him, "you're-, you're so beautiful." Liara looked at him and her smile and the sparkle in her eyes caused his soul to melt. She brought her lips to his again, though this time more gently, more fully, as she slowly guided him backwards towards his bed. They fell back against it gently, her fingers clasped in his as her other hand slowly traced the scars on his shoulder and chest, winding downward…downward.

He knew what happened next, and yet he didn't – Liara was so different from anyone he had ever met, the Asari so incomprehensible and unknowable. His hand moved to her bare back, drawing her closer as their dance of foreplay continued. Traces of biotic energy danced between them, as each subtly flared their nerves – half-controlled, half uncontrolled. His lips moved to her neck as he kicked his uniform pants off his lower body and to the ground, and Liara hissed in delight as his mouth traced the lines of her collarbone. Every nerve in his body cried out in blissful joy – this was the most incredible experience of his life. But it still wasn't enough –he ached for something _more_. In the brief moments where their minds had connected to transfer the Cipher, he had gotten but a taste of what an Asari melding felt like, and he wanted to drink from that font in its entirety.

Liara sensed his dilemma, and drew her head back until her eyes – their edges ringed with the gleaming light of anticipation that made them glow like sapphires in the dark – were staring deep into Shepard's. "Shepard," she mouthed quietly, and where before it had been a command, it now found itself a request, a quiet and desperate urging of the most primal and beautiful instincts of organic life, "embrace eternity."

Shepard again felt the world around him disappear, yet this time the sheer glory of it was overwhelming. He had thought that their linking of minds had been intense, yet it paled in comparison to this – this was different. For a moment, he was aware only of feeling as if he were being enveloped in a cloud of sunlight, and then the full power of the meld hit him. He no longer saw Liara in front of him – he _felt _her. He could feel every nerve ending in her body as it screamed with a mixture of joy, lust, and love, could sense every emotion she felt as they flew through their joined consciousness. The world that enveloped them was one inhabited solely by their beings, and they revelled in the joy and wonder of such an incredible feeling – a joining of their beings unlike anything either of them had ever experienced before.

When she spoke, he didn't hear it so much as feel the words as they coursed through their souls, as they jointly journeyed through the incredible world of light that unfolded before them. _"Join with me, Shepard. Make us one_." He was only acutely aware of her laying on top of him, and then he felt a massive shift in the sky of lights around them, as the connection between them became physical as well as mental. There were no words to describe feeling every tingle of anticipation, every flare of sexual energy that rushed through their bodies as her hips slowly began to move against his. It was incredible, and every muscle in his body reacted to her touch and proximity. Their nervous systems acted in a feedback loop with each other, and the incredible euphoria developing inside both of them only continued to build, multiplying itself as wave after wave of feeling and energy crashed over them both.

He was faintly aware of his name echoing across his mind, as their souls danced and wove between one another. He could see her mind and soul so clearly in front of him – every memory, every feeling, every facet of her being. He beheld Liara in all her beauty, and his soul wept at her glory. Their souls wove through the tangled web of their collective memories, each of them so eager to discover one another's minds and consciousness that their lovemaking became almost instinctual, a background to the wonder that was unfolding within their shared existence.

Shepard felt Liara's mind begin to sift through his memories, and he witnessed them with her as if he were reliving them. There were moments of intense joy – his graduation from Officer's School, from the N7 Academy, his ascension to the ranks of the Spectres, their first meeting on Therum and the moments after Noveria's long night of pain and sorrow when they had at last confessed their feelings to one another. He was surprised when her mind filtered through the memories he had of previous loves, of Emily, yet he was more shocked to discover that these memories no longer seemed to hold the same pain for him; they did not sting as they once had, and they paled in comparison to the spectacular feelings of pleasure as they moved against each other. Their bodies seemed to fit perfectly together, as if they were meant for each other by some grander plan.

Yet he feared that the joy and happiness would not last as a new set of memories flowed through their consciousness. There were memories of pain – his, hers, theirs, of a young and idealistic Shepard coming to blows with his father, of the destruction, chaos and death of Akuze. Liara's own memories flowed before his mind's eye as well – a young, precocious Asari Maiden, rejected and spurned by her peers; a grief-stricken woman who watched her mother die from a gunshot delivered by the man she thought she may love. Yet through these memories Liara shone, like a divine angel in a world of iniquity and strife, brighter and brighter, the brilliant light of her soul banishing the darkness and burning away the images of pain and sorrow until they were but distant relics of the past.

"_Liara, you're so beautiful_," he heard himself think, and he felt her own joy at hearing those words reverberate through her mind. His mind caught glimpses of reality, and he suddenly became aware that he and Liara had shifted so that her back was against the bed, their hips moving against each other in perfect harmony that seemed only to magnify their ecstasy. Every movement felt like a wave of energy and euphoria crashing over them both as they buried themselves in an ocean of happiness.

Liara reacted with lightning-quick reflexes, adeptly flipping Shepard onto his back and molding her body against his; when her lips crushed against his, his whole vision was drowned in a sea of light as he lost himself in the depths of their souls. Through the bright veil that seemed to hang in front of him, he could only make out her eyes as they opened to stare into his, their pure black depths giving way to a seemingly bottomless well of emotion. Her movements against him were becoming more urgent now, and Shepard could feel himself nearing the edge of his ability to hold back.

When the moment hit, the effect on their entwined nervous systems was overwhelming. The light in Shepard's mind's eye soared to blinding levels as wave upon wave of feeling from Liara's climax cascaded against his body and soul, their lips locked so tightly together that it was almost painful. He felt himself slip over the edge moments later, and every cell in his body danced as Liara's own waves of physical and mental pleasure continued to hit him. Amidst the blinding light, his ears were suddenly filled with a sound like the snapping of a tensile rod, as their combined consciousness peaked into a shared, nerve-shatteringly intense climax, one that caused an outpouring of biotic energy in both of them.

As the light began to clear from his vision, Shepard once again became fully aware of his surroundings; Liara's fingers were tightly entwined in his own, while her other hand caressed his cheek. Shepard arched his back and carefully withdrew himself from her, and his grip shifted to her waist as they rolled to their sides on the bed. He felt the mental connection begin to ebb as Liara stroked his face, the varied tendrils of their beings realigning themselves back into two separate people.

He struggled to speak, the sound of his own voice odd after hearing it reverberate across their shared minds so purely only minutes before. "Liara," he choked out, his voice overcome with emotion, "that was….that was," he paused for a moment as his still-heavy breathing overtook him, "that was…I can't even find the words."

She smiled sweetly at him, sending his heartbeat flying again, "that was incredible."

Liara's lips were on his again in a heartbeat, and he felt her left hand gently reach up to stroke the back of his hair. After another brief moment of bliss, he drew her back and stared straight into her beautiful eyes, marvelling at the shift that had occurred even in the few moments since the meld ended; the black orbs were gone, replaced by the shining sapphires that he had become so used to seeing in the past months. The words were drawn out slowly, words he hadn't said in years, words he thought he'd never say again as he saw the light in his own eyes reflected in Liara's, "I love you."

She seemed hesitant, yet his heart leapt when he heard her say the same three words back to him. Tears began to form in her eyes, and Shepard lifted a thumb to brush them away, the words coming unbidden from him as his other hand wrapped around her waist to pull her close, "All is healed, all is health. High summer holds the earth, hearts are whole. Sure on this shining night," he rested his free hand on her neck and drew her face to his uncovered chest, "I weep for wonder, wand'ring far alone, of shadows on the stars." His hand stroked the folds of her neck and made its way up onto the back of her head crest, eliciting a soft groan from Liara as she buried her face in his neck.

"That sounds beautiful," she murmured as she peppered his neck with light kisses. "What is it about?"

Shepard drew Liara closer still to him, every cell in his body craving still more of her glorious presence. He cupped her face in his hands, and spoke just before he brought her lips to his again.

"It's about looking into heaven."

**Next - Chapter 12: The Crossing of the Rubicon**


	13. Chapter 12: Crossing the Rubicon

_**Chapter 13: Crossing the Rubicon**_

**Command Room, SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Unknown Location, Attican Traverse**

"We're approaching the Mu Relay, on course for a vector hit inside of ninety seconds."

Shepard stood in the Command Room, his back to the door and hunched over the communications hub. In less than two minutes the entire system would go dark, as they would move billions of miles from any activated comm buoy in the known galaxy.

Anticipation gripped him; this was it: they were on their way to Ilos, through a relay that no one save their foe had been through in fifty thousand years. What would Ilos be like? Would it be a largely intact city, the ruined towers that dotted Feros resplendent in their full glory? Or would it be a barren world like Therum, its remains burned to ash by the overwhelming destructive power of the Reapers?

Shepard flicked a button on the communications hub and the steel panelling of the command room began to shift, moving itself to reveal an immense hardened-glass dome that gave him an awes-inspiring panoramic view of the Mu Relay as it approached. It was massive, larger than any other relay he had ever seen. It looked so perfect suspended in the midst of the stellar nebula – so isolated, so at peace from the chaotic galaxy around it.

"Sixty seconds, our vector is solid." This was it. There was no turning back now; their course was locked, and any maneuver away from the Mu Relay would prove fatal.

"Thirty seconds. We have acquired navigation specs for the far side of the Relay. Stealth systems are engaged, and we are running silent. Anything you want to say, Shepard?"

What was there to say? What words of comfort or courage could you possibly offer the fifty-or-so men and women who served on board the _Normandy_ as they prepared to jump headlong into the complete unknown? Rather than try to offer some hollow bravado, as so many of his commanders before him had done, he gave his final words before they hit the Mu Relay as an order, one given thousands of years before by one of the most brilliant commanders in human history, orders that changed the course of history forever:

"The die is cast. Cross the Rubicon."

The _Normandy_ gave a noticeable lurch as it was drawn in by the energy of the Mu Relay – the electricity was palpable in the air as they got closer and closer, and it became harder and harder to hear the shouted orders of Joker and the other crew as the sheer noise of the Mass Relay's staggering power drowned them out. The glass dome above his head lit up brilliantly as arcs of blue energy swirled around the _Normandy_, the ship at last making contact with the main core of the Mass Relay. There was a deafening crack, like the force of a thousand gunshots, and then they were through the Mu Relay; it was over before it even started. The dome above his head went dark once again, the blue light replaced by a star-filled panorama of empty space.

It was time to go. Shepard flicked the switch that closed the heavy armoured panelling over top of the glass dome of the command room. The vast blackness of space was eclipsed by the dim lighting of the _Normandy_'s interior as Shepard strode towards the CIC, his weapons firmly attached to his armour. Pressly was hurriedly calibrating the navigation data that they were still receiving from their surroundings, and the picture was slowly emerging on the Galaxy Map's control screen.

_"New cluster charted,"_ the _Normandy_'s VI noted as the picture appeared in front of him, _"The Pangaea Expanse."_ The image in front of him was beautiful – an orange disc of cosmic gas and dust encircled by branches of green gas that stretched onward for hundreds of light years. _"Approximating location," _the map's reticule swivelled across the display, coming to rest in the region that would have been north on a compass point, _"new system charted: Refuge System."_ It zoomed in on the point, identifying an empty Binary Star system with three solitary planets. _"Identifying…_" the reticule zoomed in on the second planet in the system, _"the second planet matches existing fragment data on Ilos_."

"That's it," Pressly voiced in disbelief, his calm escaping him as the realization of how momentous this was hit him, "we've found it – the lost planet of the Protheans."

"We've found it?!" Liara was through the door in a flash, her armour on and her weapons ready for battle. She skidded to a halt in front of the Galaxy Map, her eyes lighting up with excitement as she saw the scans in front of her. She glanced up at Shepard and smiled at him, and he had to suppress the urge to let his feelings show – it wouldn't do mere minutes before the most important battle of his life to betray focus to _anything_ other than what lay in front of them.

"Uh, Commander? We've got company."

"I'll be at the bridge in a moment." Shepard leapt the railing of the Galaxy Map and began jogging towards the front of the frigate, "Pressly, keep gathering navigation data on Ilos. I need a clear landing zone identified within the next ten minutes." He got simply a nodded response as he kept walking, shouting orders to the crew members at their data consoles as he moved towards the cockpit. "I need temperature and atmospheric data – what sort of planet are we landing on here? What's the surface look like. I need _any_ and _all_ landing zones catalogued – if it's a stretch of open ground big enough to land a Mako in, I need to know. If it's a space that's too small to land a Mako but large enough for a dropship to deploy troops, give those priority – Saren's going to land where he's harder to get. I need _all_ energy signatures identified – this thing is going to be an enormous power spike if it's as powerful as Liara thinks it is. Cross-reference all of that data and give me a best possible landing zone." He paused to gasp in air as he reached the cockpit, "Joker, what do you have for me?"

"We've picked up dozens of Geth signatures surrounding Ilos – mostly cruisers and frigates, though the signature of _Sovereign_ is also showing up. They're mostly clustered on the side facing the nearer of the two stars."

"Then that's our best bet as to where Saren is. Take us in silently and hang back – I want to avoid a straight-up fight with that fleet for as long as possible. How long can we run on silent?"

"Assuming we want to get back to the Mu Relay undetected, I'd give us about three and a half hours of stealth around Ilos, so long as we keep a distance of at least a thousand clicks from any one Geth ship, and at least four thousand from _Sovereign_."

Shepard lightly patted Joker on the shoulder appreciatively, before turning to head back towards the command room, "get the ground team into the briefing room, and keep sending my omnitool any and all data that you find."

Shepard passed Liara, who had already begun hurriedly assisting Pressly in decoding the data that they were receiving. She seemed to understand the intricacies of the Cipher better than Shepard did – she understood the cultural references, the layout of Prothean cities, as well as much more of their language. She smiled at him as he passed, "I can't believe we're here, Shepard."

He smiled back at her for a brief second before continuing on to the Command Room, "neither can I."

**Command Room – SSV **_**Normandy**_

It was a mix of emotions among the ground team as Shepard surveyed them – apprehension amidst calm, bravado alongside caution. Garrus tossed a combat knife in the air, his stare vacant and gazing as he caught it by the blade, and then reversed the toss to sweep it back by its hilt again. Wrex simply stood against the side wall of the room, staring forward with a look of such firm resolve on his face unlike any expression Shepard had ever seen him give. Kaidan sat in his chair, his eyes fixed forward with a calm serenity that didn't betray his inner anticipation and excitement, while Tali was leaning against the frame of one of the doors, ready in a second to descend back to the cargo bay to finish outfitting the Mako to go groundside. Liara was positively jumping out of her chair, the thought of getting a glimpse of the mythic Ilos too much for her to bear.

Which was why he dreaded saying what he had to, so he bought himself time to work up the courage by running through the statistics that they already knew. "Ilos is about twice the size of earth, and it shows in virtually everything about the planet – eleven times the atmospheric pressure of Earth or the Citadel, an average temperature along the lines of Sur'Kesh or Thessia. The data Pressly's getting from our scanners puts it decidedly in the post-garden phase – the atmosphere has unusually high quantities of oxygen, and," he quickly scrolled through the incoming data on his omnitool, confirming what he had already heard was true, "there still seem to be fires burning on the far side – the entire planet used to be a single megalopolis, but it's long since been blown to pieces."

Liara turned her back to the rest of them for a second and leaned inward, and Shepard faintly heard Pressly's voice through her omnitool, "…picking up several energy spikes on the far side which the Geth seem to have clustered around. Any idea what we're looking for?"

"It's some sort of underground megalith structure – almost like a temple or something. The Cipher seems to place it outside the ruins of a coastal city on the southern continent. Does that narrow it down at all?"

The holographic map in the command room shifted, highlighting the enormous southern half of the planet and marking several energy signatures on its surface. One of them stood out a hundred miles inland, a scar of unmarked unscanned territory that otherwise blended perfectly with the scarred and battered surface of the planet. The energy readings were equally bizarre – they fluctuated at a regular pace, and were barely readable; indeed, ships with scanners less sophisticated than the _Normandy_'s might never have picked them up.

Liara picked out the spot immediately, "Shepard, I don't know how I know, but that's the spot. It just _feels_ right." Shepard nodded in understanding – he'd felt the same thing looking at it, even if it was a gut feeling that was impossible to explain.

"Joker, Pressly, chart a course that will get us as close to that zone as possible, and start looking for potential landing zones." He turned back to his assembled crew, "Tali, I need you and Adams to get the Mako ready for deployment," his Quarian crewmember nodded, and disappeared in a flash, her footfalls echoing through the ship as she bolted for the comfort of the cargo hold. "Kaidan, I need you and Garrus to check and re-check every single weapon that we're taking groundside – mods, fittings, scopes, barrels, thermal sinks – everything."

After a minute of departure and chaos, it was only Shepard and Liara left in the command room. There was a question hanging between them in the air, and it was Liara who broke the silence that formed as a barrier where only hours ago they had felt connected in body, heart, mind and soul. "Shepard," she began tentatively, "what do you need me to do?"

"I need everything you have on Ilos – second-hand references, codex entries, fragments of code or communication – uploaded to my omnitool for when the ground team departs."

He hadn't answered the question she really wanted to know, and she knew it as she looked at him with narrowed eyes. "who is going groundside?"

There was no way around this. He knew that she would want to go with the ground team, to be the first in fifty thousand years to set foot on Ilos. He also knew what his answer would have to be, "Garrus , Wrex and I will be going groundside in the Mako." She was crestfallen, and she reacted as if she had been hit bodily in the chest. He stabled her shoulder with his left hand, and brought her chin up with his right until her eyes were looking directly into his, "I'm sorry Liara. Garrus and Wrex are the best soldiers we have, and if we're going to confront Saren then I need raw firepower."

"But you need my knowledge," she protested earnestly, "I'm the only one who knows anything about Ilos, you-,"

Shepard cut her off, "when we…bonded, you said our minds became one. If that's true, then you've already given me everything you know about Ilos."

Liara seemed unconvinced, and her eyes burned into Shepard's with a mix of scorn and anger, "please Shepard. You have no idea what it would mean to me to set foot on Ilos. I would give everything I have to do so, I-,"

He embraced her, choking off her words as he crushed Liara to his chest and brought his mouth to rest beside her ear. "Liara, I don't want to lose you down there," he whispered to her, "I'm not sure what we're going to find down there, and if something goes wrong…I just want to know that you'll survive."

Liara's breathing slowed against his chest, "alright," she slipped out of Shepard's embrace, "just promise me that you'll come back alive."

He kissed her cheek quickly, "if I don't, it won't matter – we'll all be dead anyways."

He was about to kiss her again when the buzzing of his omnitool interrupted him, "Shepard? We've got a problem."

Shepard rolled his eyes in annoyance, but Liara had slipped out of his grasp before he even knew it, "duty calls Shepard," she smiled meekly at him.

"What is it Joker?"

"We've identified several dozen Geth signatures on the ground – three hundred miles out from a particularly large group of ruins, but…"

"spare me the suspense. What's the problem?"

It was Pressly who responded, "Mako drops from a frigate typically require six hundred metres of open terrain for a landing – both to compensate for possible misalignment and to allow for the _Normandy_ to not have to risk hull shielding to get too low into the atmosphere. We've identified the heart of the signatures here," the screen in front of Shepard zoomed onto a small area at the base of the ruins, which seemed to be an entryway that led into an underground tunnel system. "We've got less than a hundred metres of open ground; there's no way that we can possibly deploy with any sort of accuracy or safety."

"Is there anything else nearby?"

"Negative; the ruins within a nine-mile vicinity are too thick for any hope of landing – that hundred-metre strip is the closest thing to a realistic landing zone that we have. But there's no way we can make it!"

"Shepard," Joker sounded cautious, "I think I can do it. I think I can land you in there."

Pressly was incredulous. "Are you insane?! There isn't a pilot in the whole of the Alliance that could pull that off! It's half the size of even the most insane drops ever attempted."

"I can pull it off! Shepard, get your team in the Mako. I can do this."

"Are you sure about this, Joker?"

"Absolutely."

Shepard was already halfway to the cargo elevator.

**Undisclosed Location, Ilos – Thirty Minutes Later**

Shepard felt the now-familiar feeling of freefall hit him as the Mako launched out of the _Normandy_'s cargo-bay. The frigate had gone into a steep nosedive in order to pull off the drop, and the ground was hurtling towards them uncomfortably fast.

From the small windows of the Mako cockpit, Ilos looked the part of a dead world. The surface was a charred shade of rust, dotted with the ruined and blackened corpses of forests that had once spanned hundreds of miles between the megacities of the forgotten planet. Even from their height, he could see still-intact arcology towers, their once-gleaming spires contorting from the ground like the brutalized limbs of a god. Amidst the endless tangle of ruins and still-burning fires, a single patch of clear ground slowly came into view. Pressly hadn't been kidding when he told them that it was insane – even with an on-foot drop, it would have been cutting it close. The stretch of open ground looked barely large enough to accommodate the Mako's frame, and it sloped downward almost immediately into what looked like an underground tunnel. Behind the landing zone, an endless stretch of ruined columns and balconies stretched onward.

As the narrow landing came into view, Shepard could pick out the forms of dozens of Geth as they scurried about on the ground below them. Their descent slowed as the Mako's jets momentarily ignited, aligning the Mako with the ground until he could no longer see the ground in front of him. Their descent levelled off, and all they had to go on was the rapidly-shrinking altitude number in front of them. In moments, they had hit the ground, jolted back to their senses by the sharp transition back into gravity.

In front of them was a long tunnel that led underground, though to where they didn't know. They were surrounded on all sides by fallen columns and ruins that would prove impossible to navigate in the Mako. Shepard could see Geth units moving further into the underground complex, yet when he began to inch the Mako forward the tunnel began to constrict as the largest blast doors he had ever seen started to close in front of them. He cursed loudly as the doors' angular corners shut them off from the complex.

Just before the blast doors sealed the complex from the outside world, Shepard caught the glimpse of a lone figure, cutting a solitary march amongst the dozens of Geth units that were moving further into the tunnel. The figure turned, revealing the full frame of a heavily-implanted Turian – the one who was responsible for all of this.

Saren.

The Turian's glowing blue eyes seemed to burn holes into Shepard's soul, as they glared at him with the utmost of intensity – a seething rage that seemed to consume the whole of the soldier they belonged to. It was the last thing Shepard saw before the blast doors sealed the tunnel off from further encroachment.

Garrus fired a single shot at the blast door, yet cursed sharply when it rang hollow off the reinforced plating. "Based on my readings, those doors are three solid feet of reinforced quad-weave carbonite alloys. Even an Alliance dreadnought couldn't punch a hole through that."

"Saren found a way to open it – there has to be a control room around here somewhere. We're going outside."

The moment he stepped out of the Mako, Shepard was stunned by the sheer heat of the atmosphere on Ilos. The flaming-hot air around him burned his lungs as he inhaled – the heat was palpable, and it made his combat armour extraordinarily uncomfortable, even with his ventilation systems running at full capacity.

"_Normandy_, this is Shepard. We have gone groundside, but the entrance is sealed. We're going to look for a way inside the facility. Get out of the system and rally the Second, Third, and Fifth Fleets at Arcturus. Give Hackett every piece of data that we've gathered, and wait for contact from me. If this ends up being as bad as I fear it's going to, I want the full might of the Alliance at the ready."

"Will do Commander."

"And Shepard?" Liara's voice cut through the static, tinged with a hint of fear and longing, "good luck down there."

The pain of the air around him was interrupted by the flashes of rifle-fire that glanced off the side of the Mako, as four Geth units came into view behind them. Shepard quickly turned and pinpointed two of the troopers with his pistol, while Garrus and Wrex each downed another of the advancing synthetics. The route behind the Mako seemed to lead into a winding maze of broken columns and blocks of reinforced stone. It was hardly ideal, but at this point it seemed to be the only way forward.

The ruins around them were silent as they passed through them – save for the occasional shots from Garrus's sniper rifle as he eliminated Geth scouts from as long a range as possible. There was nothing – no wind, no life. Even the moss and vines that coated the shattered columns around them was dead – its leaves blackened by the fires that had raged uncontrollably throughout the planet.

"Even by Krogan standards, this is bad," Wrex muttered as they crept on silent feet through the ruins, "what the hell happened here?" No one needed to answer – they all knew.

They turned a corner that led down the remnants of a staircase into a lowered balcony, and were confronted by a dozen mobile Geth units and several Armatures, their synapse working in close coordination to stop the three of them from moving further into the ruin. Wrex threw himself at one of the Armatures, rapidly charging the distance between them and shredding its leg plating at close range with his shotgun. Garrus dropped back into cover and began throwing covering fire across the field at the advancing Geth as Shepard tried to flank them around two of the fallen columns. The Geth shots were proving more accurate than before, and Shepard had to stay firmly crouched behind one of the columns and inch his way forward as rifle shots pinned the wall behind him. He desperately threw several biotic attacks out of cover, yet was unsure of whether they would hit home. He was about to step out from cover when he was momentarily deafened by the ears-splitting roar of a Geth rocket going off against the column, throwing up a mountain of dirt and rock that rained down on his armour.

When Shepard finally managed to raise his head above the column to get a good look at the battlefield, it had degenerated into utter chaos. Garrus had abandoned his covered perch and his vain attempts to snipe the enemies, and was instead running frantically from wall to wall, spraying precise assault rifle fire at any Geth that dared to lift their heads out of cover. Wrex had destroyed the first Armature, and now was lobbing biotic attacks at the onrushing Geth. Shepard joined in the chaos and within minutes the courtyard was strewn with Geth bodies.

They kept pushing forward, delving further into the ruined courtyard as they struggled to find a way into the bunker. They came to a passage that narrowed, its walls lined with dozens of identical statues carved directly from the walls themselves. They were strange to look at – humanoid, yet with features that distinctly reminded Shepard of the Husks they had encountered on Eden Prime and Feros. Small ridges extended downward from the eyes, and the neck seemed to extend directly into the lower jaw without a break. The hands also stuck out at him – opposable thumbs, but only with three additional fingers on each of them. To make it even creepier, they seemed to be staring at them, fixing them with a hollow look from their seemingly sunken eyes that made Shepard's spine shiver.

"Creepy," Garrus commented as they moved through the corridor, "so is this what the Protheans looked like?"

"We'll have to assume so," Shepard replied, "I can't see us meeting any of them soon to confirm that or not."

The corridor led them through another sprawling and ruined courtyard, and they quickly fought their way through the few Geth that stood in their way. They seemed to be concentrating most of their strength with Saren himself, in an effort to beat Shepard to the Conduit, and have sufficient force to repel Shepard if complications ensued.

At last they came to a door to somewhere that wasn't more open-air ruins. A single red line of glowing energy bisected the entrance diagonally. His gaze was drawn to the indecipherable keypad to the right of the door, its individual keys etched with scratchings that appeared as gibberish to Shepard.

"Well, we're screwed," Garrus deadpanned, "there's no way we can decipher this, and it probably has a failsafe mechanism that shuts it down after so many attempts. We could be here for months."

Yet strange as it sounded, Shepard seemed able to read the etchings on the keys perfectly – even if he didn't know what they were, he ascertained their meaning. Crouching beside the keypad, he quietly ticked several of the buttons, and grinned in delight when his efforts were rewarded with the knowing click of the doors opening. They revealed an expansive elevator that seemed to lead further down into the ruins.

Garrus was speechless. "How the hell did you-," he nodded knowingly, "of course – the Cipher."

The elevator started downward without warning when the three of them were in it – almost as if it could tell that they were its only passengers. The lift was virtually silent and surprisingly smooth – even after fifty thousand years, it ran almost perfectly and was devoid of the violent stops and lurches that had characterized similar designs on Feros and Therum.

"Any idea where this leads," Garrus pondered aloud, "it can't be into the bunker – there would be more Geth here if it did."

The elevator opened into a narrow corridor with low-hanging ceilings. The outside world had begun to seep in, and piles of rubble and rock littered the floor. Even here, what little fauna they saw was fossilized – burnt to ash like everything on the surface.

He was about to comment on the deadness of the atmosphere when another Geth Armature swivelled into view, accompanied by the same Prime Unit that they had encountered on Feros. In the confines of the corridor they were sitting ducks, and Wrex and Shepard jointly deployed an enveloping barrier as shot after shot cascaded against their biotic shield. The exertion required to keep it up was immense, but Shepard could make out an open area of space less than fifty metres in front of them; if they could get there, they were in the clear. It took every ounce of concentration to keep the barrier up against the onslaught being thrown against them, and Garrus was only able to pick off a few of the Geth stragglers as they advanced through the corridor.

They reached the edge of the expansive hall with only moments to spare, and Shepard and Wrex released the barrier outward in a massive explosion of biotic energy that fried the shields of many of the larger Geth. Three quick sniper-shots from Garrus tore the Prime's head to pieces. Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard spotted two Armature Repair Stations, each with one of the towering synthetics firmly wedged in place. Before the Geth could recover from their biotic attack, Shepard dove behind one of the repair panels and quickly connected his omnitool into its circuitry. In seconds the hack was complete, and a full-size armature rose in the midst of the Geth, its single orbed eye swivelling to seek targets.

The Geth seemed shocked when the Armature fired a single blast of energy into their midst, tearing through several heavier units and sending a general sense of panic through the ranks. On the opposite side of the room, Garrus successfully hacked the other repair station, and soon the linked fire from the two Armatures had the room virtually cleared, with only the remnants of the Krogan mercenaries putting up much of a fight. When Shepard took time to survey the damage, the destruction of the Geth force was almost complete, save for Wrex – locked in a vicious melee with two Krogan mercenaries in the far corner. He adeptly parried the blow of one of them, before landing a biotically-charged fist between the eyes of the second; Even from twenty metres, Shepard could hear the crack of the mercenary's skull, and as he turned to fight the last of the Geth he heard several shotgun blasts finish off the second mercenary.

Garrus surveyed the damage as they kept moving towards the centre of the room. "Not bad," he remarked as they stepped over the shattered frame of the Geth Prime, "my aim is getting better. Now we just need to…to…." He paused as they took in their surroundings, "Shepard, I don't suppose that Cipher gave you any idea of where the hell we're supposed to go?"

Shepard closed his eyes for a moment, blotting out the world around him as he reached deep into the recesses of his memory. A thousand images swept by him – images of Feros, of Noveria, of the Thorian, of Liara. What would she think of this place? It wasn't the goldmine of history and knowledge that she had thought it might be – as far as they could tell, it was a tomb. It took every bit of concentration to push Liara's eyes, her face, her beautiful body out of his mind. He had a job to do, and none of them would ever get their chance at tomorrow if they didn't figure out how to stop Saren from reaching the Conduit.

At last the image came to him, dwelling within the deepest recesses of his subconscious. He could almost hear it as a voice guiding him, pushing him closer to where he had to go. Without opening his eyes, he began to walk, drawn by some unseen force towards the far side of the room, moving deliberately and assuredly. After exchanging worried glances, Garrus and Wrex followed him cautiously. When Shepard opened his eyes again, he found himself staring at the entrance to a small stairwell that led up towards the surface. Pushing through the tangled dead growth in front of him, they found themselves in a low and brief corridor; it must barely have elevated them twenty feet, yet the angle of the ascent itself was sharp.

It brought them into what looked like a control room. Several long-destroyed panels lined the walls, each with sets of screens that had been smashed in for what looked like thousands of years. Steel and polymetallic splinters lined the floor, making it a dangerous tangle of sharp edges and twisted cables. Shepard gingerly crossed the floor to the one panel that looked to still be in working order, distinguished from its surroundings only by the faintly glowing holographic button in its centre. Without even hesitating, he reached forward and pressed it down.

The panel flashed to life, a whir of information flying through the screen that popped up in response. Even with the Cipher, Shepard could only make out bits of it. After several seconds of scrawling text and code, the screen was replaced by a holographic projection of the layout of the facility, with the massive blast doors they had landed beside outlined relative to their current location.

"…..Too late," Shepard spun on the spot at the sound of the disembodied voice, his pistol firmly trained on its origin. The hologram was badly damaged, and it showed only the beginnings of a holo-ring, its centre flaring constantly with static that pointed to code that had long since deteriorated over the course of fifty thousand years, "unable to….." it cut out again, "…invading fleets….no escape…."

"I can't understand a word – it must be in Prothean. I bet no one's activated this in fifty millennia. What the hell is it saying," Garrus asked as they stared transfixed, "Shepard, does the Cipher let you understand that thing?"

He nodded, "it's mostly static, but there's bits about invading fleets, and there being no escape. It looks like they were too late."

The hologram kept going. "….-ot safe….seek refuge…..inside the archives….-alled Reapers….the Citadel….-s overwhelmed…all fleets destroyed…..only hope." It briefly cut out, before a second discernible voice started speaking again, "the Conduit…..-ct of desperation….all is lost."

"There it is! It said something about the Conduit. I think it's further inside the archives – the door where we landed." Shepard glanced quickly at the map that arrayed itself in front of them again, and noted that the blast doors' projection seemed to have shifted colour, "I think they're open now. Let's get inside."

Garrus quickly cut through a large tangle of dead vines at the back of the room that obscured another long corridor – this one seemed to lead to another elevator back to the surface. The first thing Shepard noticed was the high ceilings – they stood well over seven feet, and the corridor was big enough for all three of them to comfortably maneuver even in full armour and equipment.

"What are the odds that Saren has an ambush set up for us once we get into the archives," Shepard pondered aloud.

"Speaking as a fellow Turian, I find it unlikely. He knows you're close behind him – he's not going to waste any time or energy doing anything other than trying to beat you to the Conduit. We'll probably encounter the odd rocket outpost, but nothing that the Mako can't handle." They entered another elevator that quickly took them back to the surface, but this time closer to the Mako than the one they had entered five minutes earlier. Geth resistance was sparse, and only a handful attempted to stop them as they sprinted back to the Mako.

They found the tank untouched by Geth fire, waiting for them as if they had barely left it. To their delight, the blast doors in front of them had opened, revealing a single deepening tunnel that led further into the complex. It was extremely narrow – barely the width of two Makos – and left no room for maneuvering. To Shepard's eyes, it was the laying of a perfect ambush, yet for some reason he trusted Garrus's analysis to be accurate – Saren would be too busy trying to get to the Conduit, and unless they were right behind him they were unlikely to face substantial resistance.

They quickly crammed into the Mako, which felt even more cramped than it had on previous missions, and Shepard wasted no time flooring the throttles as the Mako launched forward into the darkness. The thin rays of light that had pierced through the smoldering ruins above them quickly disappeared as the corridor led deeper and deeper underground. As the tunnel plunged into darkness, Garrus flicked a switch and activated infrared vision on the Mako's windshields; even then, it was tough to make out the walls around them amidst the cold and lifeless concrete.

"Just looks like another tomb to me," Wrex noted with a slightly mocking tone.

As they drove through the darkness, they began to see the beginnings of light the further they moved into the tunnel. Finally, it grew brighter and brighter until they were practically in daylight again. It took them a while to realize that the tunnel was now lined with dimly-glowing lights that flickered between a dark orange and cream colour.

Garrus suddenly went very stiff in the gunner's seat. "Uh, guys? We've got company." He synched his visor with the Mako's electronics, and it quickly picked out two targets on the HUD. "Two of them – look like rocket troopers from this distance."

"Do they know we're here?"

"Difficult to say; if they don't," Garrus's seat swivelled slightly as the turret realigned, "they will soon." He didn't wait for the order, didn't bother to give a warning, and Shepard went momentarily deaf from the ear-splitting thunder of the cannon going off in the confined and echoing tunnel. "Scratch one," Garrus swivelled slightly again, waiting for the click of the reloading mechanism before he pushed down on the trigger again, "and two."

They continued onward uninterrupted, and as they passed the bodies of the Geth Shepard picked up the sound of rushing water. From their vantage point, they could only see that the tunnel sloped downward again, and that the light got substantially brighter at the bottom.

Garrus glanced at Shepard and Wrex, looking at them apprehensively. "That could either be a really good or a really bad sign. Guess my old Blackwatch commander was right – the nice thing about freefall is that you know _exactly_ what direction you're going."

The low-hanging ceiling of the tunnel suddenly gave way to cavernous heights, and a thin veil of light flooded down through the twenty-foot-thick glass that was bolted a hundred feet above them. They quickly found that they were driving through water little more than a foot deep, which seemed to be flowing in no particular direction. The light was serrated and jagged – cut off in places by the fallen ruins that dotted the landscape above them. The glass panels that lined the ceiling were easily twenty feet thick, but even through their refracting power the light that funnelled down to the roadway itself was dim.

As they drove, they began to notice that the walls were lined with row upon row of glass portholes; each in the shape of a hexagon, no light escaped from their other side, and the occasional plate was attached to a small hexagonal pod that jutted out from the wall. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands of them.

"What do you suppose those are," Garrus asked aloud as they continued onward through the tunnel. "They almost look like…stasis pods – like the ones that are used for high-risk medical procedures, but…I'm not picking up any life signs in any of them."

They intrigued him –these stasis pods. Had they once housed hundreds upon hundreds of Protheans – warriors, scientists, artists? Had this place once been the last hope of a dying race beset by catastrophe from beyond the reaches of the galaxy itself? Had they ever known that they were truly doomed, their stasis pods condemned to fall silent and dark amidst the emptiness of this graveyard of a planet?

Without warning, a sheer wall of energy appeared twenty feet in front of them, causing Shepard to slam down on the Mako's brake pedal hard. All three of them lurched forward in their seats as they brought the Mako to a screeching halt a few feet in front of the barrier. From an initial glance, it seemed stronger than any he had seen before; he could barely see beyond it, and it seemed to radiate energy as it blocked their way.

Wrex slumped back in his seat – defeat obvious in his posture, "well that's it – we're done. Saren has us beat."

"I don't think this is Saren," Garrus remarked back, "let's get out and take a look around."

Shepard was the first one out of the Mako, and he revelled in the feeling of running water beneath his feet. The air this far down was stale and metallic, and the water did little to help alleviate that. Without hesitation, Shepard walked towards the shimmering veil of light that now stood in front of them. He could make out the faint outlines of a further corridor beyond the wall, but the bright rays that cascaded down obscured his view. Hesitantly, he brought his hand close to the shield, first testing the possibility of harm by flaring his biotics close to it. When that had no discernible effect, he brought his right hand into contact with the shield. It seemed to run down his hand like water, and his palm managed to sink a few millimetres into the shimmering surface, yet he could not force his way through; the wall seemed to bend with his hand as he applied pressure.

"This definitely isn't Saren," he muttered to himself, "it seems too…natural, like it's supposed to be here."

Garrus seemed to have heard him as he examined the wall himself. "This isn't like any technology I've ever seen before. The closest I've seen to it are the Volus defense matrices, but those would have killed us by now…"

"People!" Shepard turned to see Wrex gesturing furiously at a small alcove in the side of the chamber's wall, "not sure where this leads, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here." They followed the Krogan battlemaster into the narrow corridor that led away from the now-blocked chamber. It led a short way away from the main chamber before widening to reveal a door identical to the elevator they had taken into the bunker control room. The doors parted for them, and they quickly filed into the elevator before the doors closed silently behind them. After several moments of apparent hesitation, it shifted downward at a brutally slow pace, sliding diagonally further into the bunker. No one spoke, so concentrated was each of them in thought. Shepard wondered where this could possibly lead –what surprise lay around the corner to confront them next.

After forty seconds of movement through the bowels of the bunker, the doors at the rear of the elevator slid open, revealing a solitary walkway in front of them. The first thing that struck Shepard was the quality of the air, and he felt his lungs rejoice at the feel of pure, crystalline air rushing through them for the first time in close to an hour. Stepping into the walkway, Shepard beheld a slim chamber that seemed to stretch upwards for hundreds of feet. Approximately ten feet above the walkway was a small cluster of perhaps two dozen stasis pods, their capsules rimmed with what appeared to be solid gold. The slimmest bands of light bore down towards them, flooding the chamber with refracted light that bounced practically every direction.

Garrus stared upward in awe at the cascades of light that flooded through the glass ceiling hundreds of feet above them. "What were they trying to do here?" His gaze shifted to the stasis pods, "it almost looks like this is some sort of refuge, but…"

Water began to well in Shepard's eyes at the sight of light, and he wasn't even sure why. The statues that had lined the corridors and fallen ruins hundreds of feet above them seemed to scream in desperation – a silent monument to the final hopes of a doomed race. All around them, the crushed pillars and broken columns spoke of glories past – of a megalopolis that rose above the planet, the crown jewel in an empire that spanned the entirety of the known galaxy. Every step they took further into the bunker seemed to bring out different emotions. Feros had evoked only fear – fear of the unknowable in the form of the Thorian. Therum and Virmire and countless other worlds they had found with Prothean ruins had carried practically no emotion at all. Yet the entirety of the complex carried a palpable feeling of sadness – was it regret? Loss? Hope? Despair? – that permeated the whole of the complex.

Twenty feet in front of them lay the ruined remnants of a computer terminal, its barely-functioning lights still flickering intermittently. As they approached, the base of the terminal began to whir at an ever-increasing pace, powering itself up at the proximity of living beings. The hologram that appeared in front of them was badly damaged, though perhaps less so than the one they had encountered at the entrance to the bunker. Its code seemed garbled and torn in places, but it bore the shape of a scattered series of disks that coalesced into a single consciousness – perhaps the mind of the last of the Protheans.

"Looks to be a VI Program," Wrex said to himself, "pretty badly damaged."

The hologram seemed to regard them almost curiously as they approached, its oblong sides shifting focus from Shepard to Garrus to Wrex, then back to Shepard. At last, it spoke, its voice in a language as clear to him as those he had grown up speaking and hearing. "You are not Prothean, but you are not machine, either." The disembodied voice breathed a sigh that almost seemed to be one of relief, "this eventuality was one of many that was anticipated. That is why we sent our warning through the Beacons." It paused for another few seconds, a series of scans and icons flashing in the corners of its projection, "I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you – unlike the one who passed recently. Perhaps this means that there is still hope."

"Wait a minute," Garrus interrupted the VI, "how come I can understand you? Why aren't you speaking the Prothean language?"

"I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived in this facility," the VI responded, "I have translated my output into a format you will comprehend. My name is Vigil. You are safe here – for the moment. But that is likely to change; soon, nowhere will be safe."

"Vigil," Shepard intoned to himself, "are you an AI?"

"I am an advanced non-organic analysis system with personality imprints Ksad Ishan – Chief Overseer of the Ilos Research Facility."

Shepard took a moment to glance upwards again, beholding once more the thin rays of light that wound down through the tangle of crushed steel and fallen concrete. "Why did you bring me here?"

"You must break the cycle that has continued for millions of years," Vigil explained, "but to stop it, you must understand or you will make the same mistakes that we did – mistakes that cost us dearly." There was a brief pause, as if the program was considering where to begin, "the Citadel is no doubt the heart of your civilization and the seat of government?" Shepard nodded, and he almost thought he heard the program sigh. "This is as it was with us, and as it has been with every major civilization that came before us. But the Citadel is a trap. The station is actually an enormous Mass Relay that links to dark space, to the empty void beyond the galaxy's horizons. When the Citadel Relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through, and everything you know will be annihilated."

It didn't seem possible – Relays were too inconspicuous, too massive. "How come nobody ever noticed that the Citadel was an inactive Mass Relay?"

"When they constructed the Citadel, the Reapers were careful to keep its greatest secrets hidden from the eyes of those who would inhabit it. To do so, they created a species of seemingly benign organic caretakers. Whether the Keepers were a unique creation, or a corrupted form of an early species, we were never sure, but their role is the same regardless: maintain the station's most basic functions. In doing so, they allow any species that discovers the Citadel to use it without understanding its technology or true purpose. Reliance on the Keepers ensures that no other species will ever discover the Citadel's true nature until the Relay is activated and the Reapers invade _en masse_. They remain in Dark Space to allow time for civilizations to develop after their harvesting is complete. What little data we collected is largely guesswork, but we believed that they entered a dormant state of low power; by retreating beyond the edges of the galaxy, they ensure that no one accidentally discovers their existence before the appointed time."

A ball of dread was beginning to pool in Shepard's gut. The entirety of galactic civilization was based at the Citadel – their leaders, their generals, their strongest fleets. If caught off-guard by a fleet of thousands of sentient super-dreadnoughts, it would be a massacre. "The Reapers could wipe out the entire Council and Citadel Fleet in a single attack."

There was a hint of sadness and regret in Vigil's voice when it spoke. "That was our fate. Our leaders were dead before we even realized that we were under attack –the strongest of our fleets broken and destroyed in their entirety. The Reapers seized control of the Citadel. More importantly, by doing so they also controlled the Mass Relays. Communication and transportation across the entire Empire were crippled. Each cluster was completely isolated, cut off from the others. With our fleets scattered and disorganized, our worlds proved easy prey for the Reaper fleets. Over the next decades, our people were systematically obliterated by the Reapers. They hunted us world by world, system by system. They were methodical, calculating, and they gradually wiped us out."

Saren had spoken of this inevitability – of the sense that there was nothing to be done that could possibly stop the Reapers. It was worth seeing if he was right. "You were beaten from the start. You could have negotiated –surrendered."

"Surrender? No offer of surrender was ever given. Our enemy had a single goal: the extinction of all advanced organic life. Through the Citadel, the Reapers had access to all of our records, maps, census data, tactical and strategic documents, weapons schematics. Information is the greatest weapon in the history of warfare, and they knew _everything_ about us. They advanced across every settled region of the galaxy – no world was safe from the darkening. Some worlds were utterly destroyed; others were conquered, their populations enslaved and indoctrinated. These indoctrinated servants became sleeper agents under Reaper control. Other Protheans took them in as refugees, and they betrayed them to the Reapers. Within a few centuries, the Reapers had killed or enslaved every Prothean in the galaxy. They were relentless, brutal, and absolutely thorough. When they were finished their work, the Reapers retreated into Dark Space – all traces of their invasion wiped clean from the worlds they had destroyed. The indoctrinated were mindless shells of their former selves – incapable of existence of comprehension. They were left to die from exposure on worlds devoid of life. The genocide of the Protheans was absolute."

"Hold on," Garrus cut in, "they come, wipe everything out, and then just leave? If it's not about conquest, why do they do it? What do the Reapers get out of repeating this pattern of genocide over and over?"

"The Reapers are alien, unknowable. Perhaps they need slaves or resources," Vigil posited, More likely, they are driven by motives and goals that organic and finite beings cannot hope to comprehend. They are eternal – the peak of synthetic evolution. Compared to us, they are gods; who are we to understand their minds? In the end, does it matter? Your survival does not depend on understanding them – merely on stopping them."

Shepard could have spent another week in conversation with this incredible virtual interface – Liara probably could have spent a year, and Shepard felt a mix of elation and regret that she wasn't here to see this with him. "Then tell me how to stop them."

"The Conduit is the key. Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries behind the technology of the Mass Relays. Ilos was a top secret facility. Here, researchers worked to create a small-scale version of a Mass Relay. We intended to link it directly to the Citadel – the hub of the Relay network."

"Well," Garrus exclaimed pointedly, "that's not at all what I was expecting. I thought the Conduit would be some sort of super-weapon; it's a back-door onto the Citadel."

To Shepard, there was something that didn't make sense about it. "Something that prominent would garner the attention of the Reapers. How did you manage to stay hidden?"

"Virtually no records were kept on the project or its existence –the Prothean censors were _very_ thorough in keeping all traces of the project off the record. What few official records existed were sparse and undetailed, and most of them were destroyed in the initial attack on the Citadel. While the Prothean Empire came crashing down around us, Ilos was largely spared. The planet's greatest cities were burned to ash, its spectacular flora and fauna wiped out in the cataclysm wrought by the Reapers, but this facility itself went largely unharmed and unknown.

In the course of our research, we had come to suspect the possibility of something similar to the Reapers existing; contingency plans were in place. When we lost contact with the Citadel, we severed all communications with the remainder of the outside world; the facility went dark. All personnel retreated underground into these archives. To conserve resources, everyone was put into cryogenic stasis. I was programmed to monitor the facility and wake the staff when the danger had passed." Vigil emitted another sigh, as if remembering what had transpired, "but the genocide of an entire species is a long, slow process. Years turned into decades, then to centuries. The Reapers persisted, and my energy reserves were dwindling."

It seemed astounding to Shepard that they would have allowed themselves to be walled in by such a threat, to simply dwindle to nothingness as the Reapers continued to annihilate their species. "You could have fought; you should have fought!"

"We were a few hundred researchers against a galactic invasion fleet that had burned our mightiest armies to ash in a matter of minutes. Our only hope was to remain undetected. I began to disable the life support of non-essential personnel – first support staff, then security. One by one, the pods were shut down to conserve energy. Eventually, only the stasis pods of the top scientists remained active, and even these were in danger of failing when the Reapers final retreated back through the Citadel Relay."

"There were hundreds of stasis pods out there! You just shut them down? You killed them?"

Shepard found himself agreeing with Garrus's disbelief. "You were programmed to protect them – not to kill them slowly."

"This was not an outcome that was completely unforeseen. My actions were the result of contingency programming entered on my creation." Shepard somehow doubted that the support staff had been notified of this rather important change in the contract. "I saved key personnel. When the Reapers retreated, the top researchers were still alive. My actions are the only reason that any hope remains. When the researchers woke, there were only a dozen individuals left – far too few to sustain a viable population. From the beginning of their awakening, they knew that the Prothean race was doomed," Vigil paused, "yet this gave them a new calling – a dedication to stop the Reapers from returning, to find a way to break the cycle forever. Very early on in their research, they deduced that the Keepers were the key. They are controlled by the Citadel; before each invasion, a signal is sent through the station that compels the Keepers to activate the Citadel Relay. The researchers devoted the rest of their lives to feverish study, and discovered a way to alter – if not entirely block – the signal. The Conduit gave them a back door into the Citadel, and they used it to gain access to the Citadel's Master Control Unit and make the necessary modifications. This time, when _Sovereign_ sent the signal to the Citadel, the Keepers ignored it; the Reapers were trapped in Dark Space."

His mind began to connect the dots in rapid sequence, and it dawned on Shepard with a mix of fascination and horror where this was going. "if the Conduit is a back-door into the Citadel, would it give Saren access to this same Master Control Unit?"

"From what little I was able to deduce from my interactions with the one you call Saren, the Conduit will be used to bypass the Citadel's formidable defenses. Once he is inside, he will transfer control of the Citadel to _Sovereign_. It will override the Citadel's systems and then manually open the relay; the cycle of extinction will resume."

"Can you help us stop them?"

"There is a data file in my console. Link your personal computation system with it, and I will transfer a copy to you. When you reach the Citadel's master control unit, upload it to the station. It will give you temporary access to the Citadel's controls and allow you to shut _Sovereign _out of the system. It will not guarantee victory, but it might give you a fighting chance. But do not assume that it has given you victory. _Sovereign_ likely remained behind with the express purpose of ensuring the Reapers' return; it has planned this perhaps for centuries. You will not catch it off-guard, and it will not go down without a fight." Shepard smiled in grim satisfaction as the lights on his omnitool indicated the reception of a file. He opened it to reveal an incomprehensibly complex stream of data; he wasn't even close to understanding a word of it, but they simply had to trust this millennia-old Prothean VI.

They were about to go, but one last question burned in Shepard's mind. "Wait – one question. On Eden Prime, I encountered a working Prothean Beacon – one that planted the vision of the Reapers' return into my mind. Where did that come from?"

"As the height of our existence, the Beacons spanned the breadth of our Empire; they allowed for instantaneous communication across the entirety of the galaxy. They formed part of a single galaxy-wide network. Most were destroyed when the Reapers invaded, but once the Reapers were gone the survivors on Ilos decided to risk sending out a message. They weren't sure what had become of the remainder of the Prothean Empire, but if there were indeed any other Protheans in existence, they need to know that Ilos held the key to our salvation. The message was specifically coded so that only organic beings could interpret it – and even then, it would take an understanding of the Prothean mind that we didn't think was possible – but we on Ilos still didn't understand the power of Reaper indoctrination. We did not foresee that _Sovereign_ would be able to work through agents to interpret and piece together the puzzle." Vigil's discs shifted to glance across at the three of them, "but the Beacons also brought you here. If hope still exists for sentient organic life in the galaxy, it rests in you three. Now hurry! Every moment you wait brings your people closer to the brink of annihilation!"

As they sprinted back to the elevator, the VI interface calmly dimmed behind them, leaving only a faintly-glowing ring at the base of the terminal.

"All this time, we thought the Protheans were some sort of demigod species," Wrex mused as the elevator shot upwards towards the tunnels nearer the surface, "but we were wrong. They failed spectacularly – they didn't see the threat of the Reapers coming, and they paid for it with everything."

"They didn't fail entirely," Garrus replied, "they figured out the Mass Relays; they built the Conduit – Vigil said that's the only reason there's any hope left at all. That's got to count for something."

The Mako was intact and untouched where they had left it, yet the barrier of light that had blocked their passage was now gone. They could see further down the tunnel in the dim light that pierced through the ruined ceiling in certain places. It appeared to veer off to the left and slope downward somewhat along with the path of water that continued to trickle through their feet. The three of them climbed back into the Mako, with Garrus once again taking up the gunner's position next to Shepard. His hands firmly on the controls of the vehicle, Shepard shot the Mako forward and further into the tunnel.

After a long downward slope that seemed to edge slightly to the left, the water-filled path broke into the open air, and Shepard's vision was flooded with light from Ilos's sun and momentarily blinded. Without warning, the ground gave way beneath them in a sort of mini-waterfall, and Shepard felt the vertigo of free fall hit his system for a few painstaking moments before the Mako made contact with the ground some twenty feet below where the road had originally been. Pausing only to regain his balance within the vehicle, Shepard gunned the engines forward, not even slowing for a second as Garrus trained the main gun on a pair of Geth Armatures that lurked in waiting for them. Shepard swerved to avoid the first electric burst that came at them, and Garrus seemed to react instinctively, firing off a pair of shots that downed the first Armature and threw the second one into confusion. Shepard threw the controls in the other direction, bringing the Mako into a criss-crossing pattern as they inched closer to the remaining Armature. Garrus alternated between the light assault gun and the heavy cannon as he moved to take down the Armature, and his last shot rang home as the mech's head-plate was torn to pieces by a barrage of mass accelerator rounds.

They swerved through another set of corners, and then down through another waterfall which Shepard was able to pick out well in advance; he simply gunned the stabilization thrusters and gently coasted down to the ground some thirty feet below them. They hit the ground at full speed, with Garrus firing pinpointed bursts of fire at any Geth that moved within thirty metres of them. The few rocket troopers that remained seemed to realize that this fight was beyond them, and did precious little other than hide behind their barricades as the Mako passed.

The panels above them began to widen, and Shepard could see a brilliant blue light far in the distance. The road sloped upwards again as they drove onward, with the water continuing to slosh around their tires at a near-constant level as they hit the incline. For a solid minute the light grew brighter and brighter, and then flashed suddenly in front of them and momentarily blinded all three of them. At last they reached the crest of the road, and the view opened up into a spectacular domed structure, with a diameter that must have exceeded a thousand feet. The roof rose hundreds of feet into the air, with a solitary opening into the sky above them through which light would have flooded. Yet their eyes were drawn to the centre, where they stared onward in awe.

The Conduit.

There it was in front of them, a solitary hundred-foot high Mass Relay, its majestic rings spinning rapidly as they pulsated with energy. Its main arms pointed upward, with a single beam of light piercing through the opening in the domed roof. The water that streamed down the sides of the dome collected in a pool at its base, where it seemed to simply rest and sparkle with the power of the magnificent piece of technology above it.

"That's incredible," Garrus said with a hint of awe in his voice, "I've never seen anything like it."

Shepard's gaze was immediately drawn to the now-clear figures that lined the way to the Conduit: Colossi, Armatures and Geth Primes – dozens of them. There was no sign of Saren, yet Shepard didn't have to guess what those flashes of light had meant before the pit of his stomach filled with dread.

"We may already be too late."

**Station Control Centre, Citadel – Widow Nebula**

Sagran Irin squinted at his station again as the data came flooding back to him. It had been a boring day – brutally boring, even with the fact that a Human Frigate had managed to break lockdown and make a run through the Widow Relay about twelve hours ago. The Human Ambassador had been found unconscious, but he was furious when he finally came to. He had ordered a full search of the Relay Records, but Sagran's supervisor had informed him that that was impossible; the records on Relay traffic were too high-level for their security clearance, and (much to the ambassador's chagrin) someone on the Frigate appeared to have located and deleted the Relay Transponder software. He chuckled as he remembered the look on the ambassador's face – still sporting a black eye and a bloodied lip – as he screamed at the Control Centre staff to do something, anything, about the issue. That ambassador had been one pissed off human; they had been making jokes about it for hours since.

"Citadel Control, this is Turian Dreadnought _Taetrus_, come in. We are standing by with the Fourth Cruiser Division and prepared to depart for the Traverse in accordance with Phase I of Operation _Fortress_. Can you confirm that Relay traffic is clear?"

Sagran glanced at his screen again, eager to assist the Turian admiral on the other end. "Copy that _Taetrus. _Relay traffic on your route has been clear for two minutes and twelve seconds. Citadel Control can confirm Relays will be fully synched and aligned in three minutes."

It had been a massive operation throughout the past day. Turian, Asari and Salarian warships had been coming and going throughout, en-route to a massive joint patrol of the Relays that linked to the Terminus Systems. Sparatus and Tevos had pronounced it their coordinated response to the threat of Saren – the rogue Turian Spectre who still lurked beyond the border between Citadel Space and the Terminus. A few of the humans working in Citadel Control had scoffed at the notion – after all, their new Spectre had stated openly that it was insufficient, and had even hijacked his own frigate – but Sagran and the other Council species members in the unit had dismissed those rumours. There was no way a rogue Turian could breach the sheer might of the combined fleets of the Republics, Hierarchy and Union working in concert to block access to the Citadel. Every single Relay that linked to the Terminus Systems would be guarded by multiple dreadnoughts, a dozen cruisers, and upwards of twenty Frigates; there was no way they were getting through that. Even if rumours of Saren's super-dreadnought _Sovereign_ were to be believed, they still didn't worry Sagran much. On the off chance that the _Sovereign_ and a Geth fleet managed to breach one of the guarding forces and reach the Citadel, the lighter ships would be destroyed or heavily damaged, and the _Sovereign _itself would probably have depleted barriers and damaged armour. They would then have to still face the might of the Permanent Citadel Fleet: twenty Turian cruisers, five Asari cruisers, a dozen Frigates from each of the Council races, and the _Destiny Ascension_ –the mightiest dreadnought ever constructed. Even from his chair, he could see its majestic shape standing guard over the Citadel, its main gun powerful enough to tear through the mightiest vessels of any fleet that dared to fight it.

Without warning, the Relay readings on Sagran's screen began to flood back with data he'd never seen before. He'd been at this job nearly six years, but these readings were bizarre even by the standards of the outlandish craft that sometimes passed through the Relays linking to the Terminus Systems. It seemed to indicate increased traffic incoming to the Widow Relay, but the code was filled with strange symbols and glitches that were completely alien to him.

"Hold on _Taetrus_. We've got some garbled code coming in here – indicates there's something coming through the Relay on the other side inside of twenty seconds, looks to be en-route from the Hawking Relay. Abort your current course to the Relay and divert to Rallying Point Alpha."

"This is _Taetrus_ battlegroup. What do you mean, 'something coming through the Relay'? The _Madari_'s battlegroup on the other side is keeping the Hawking Relay clear of traffic!"

The code began to flood down rapidly, and Sagran's screen actually seemed to white out with the sheer volume of readings that were now appearing in front of him. "That's what my terminal is saying – looks to be a lot of traffic too, and not anything that the Relay recognizes." He could see the Relay from where he was sitting, and when he glanced up its rings were spinning at a furious pace, as if the entirety of the Turian Fleet was about to burst through overcrowded beyond the capacity of the entire network.

Without warning, ships began to appear through the Widow Relay; only a few at first, yet soon dozens upon dozens of ships were flooding through the Relay and barreling towards the Permanent Citadel Fleet at a ferocious pace. The scanners sitting next to him began to pick up their signatures; their identity came back as Geth.

His supervisor peered over his own desk, looking at the readings that were coming back to him. "That can't be right. Run a full scan of the Control Systems. Even if they've ventured beyond the Perseus Veil for the first time in three centuries, there's no way the Geth would send a motley force of Cruisers and Frigates unless-"

His voice died in his throat as the enormous vessel burst through the Relay. It must have been easily two kilometers long, and didn't match any of the ship signatures kept in the Relay database. it resembled some fish that one of his human coworkers had told him about once, and its massive clawed mandibles extended outwards as bolts of red lightning flared between them.

All Sagran could manage was the obvious. "That's not good." He couldn't tell whether this fleet was opening fire or not, until suddenly several of the Turian frigates surrounding the _Destiny Ascension_ began to explode as the barrage of cannon-fire. "Oh fuck me…that's really not good."

His supervisor was up in a flash, the Salarian shouting orders to his subordinates. "Mara, sound general emergency alarm and put the Citadel in lockdown – we're under attack! I want the Citadel arms ready to close in sixty seconds. Prepare to evacuate the Council to the _Destiny Ascension_. Sagran – recall the Turian First, Asari Third and Salarian Fourth Fleets to the Widow Nebula. Inform Admiral Coryn at Arcturus Station that we have a Code Crimson situation; get the Alliance First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Fleets to the nebula as quickly as po-,"

The shot struck Sagran's supervisor square in the temple, throwing him back over his desk and scattering blood across the control room. A lone Turian emerged through the door, gunning down the two security guards on the far side of the room with lightning quick reflexes. The Turian was powerfully built, his armour very obviously upgraded by significant biotech augmentation, and Sagran noticed quickly that he was also a very powerful biotic. He moved with lightning-quick reflexes to kill three more of the now-scattering workers in the room. The few who had sidearms on them were quickly gunned down – either by Saren or by his Geth lieutenants. His blood racing, Sagran reached for his own pistol in a vain attempt to stop the onslaught. He had no sooner drawn it when his arm exploded in agony as the shots from a Geth pulse rifle tore through his elbow, nearly severing it at the joint. Saren was on him in a flash, his hand gripped tightly around Sagran's throat.

This close up, Sagran got a good look at just how different Saren was from when he had been considered the best Spectre in recent memory. His hand felt more like cold steel than the warm grip of a fellow Turian, and it tightened like a vice around his throat. Wires and cables flowed out of the back of Saren's armour, in some cases linking into the back of his head itself. His head-crest was covered with steel plates that glinted with a strange light from an unknown source. But it was the eyes that Sagran's rapidly blurring vision was drawn to. They glowed pure red with an intensity unlike anything he had ever seen before, betraying the full extent of the malice, disdain, and fury contained within this rogue Turian's soul.

Saren regarded him coldly, and the voice he spoke with was not like any Turian voice; it was guttural, dark, and seemed to scream even within the recesses of Sagran's mind. _"Remember that you are dust, and to dust…We shall return you_." Sagran heard only the sickening snap of his neck breaking, and then his world went black forever.

**Next - Chapter 13: The Vanguard of Destruction **


	14. Chapter 13: The Vanguard of Destruction

_**Chapter 13: The Vanguard of Destruction**_

**Prothean Archives – Ilos, Refuge System, Pangaea Expanse – Simultaneously**

"So we're fucked. You know that, right?"

Shepard agreed with Garrus's assessment. The situation looked bad from every angle: Saren was on board the Citadel causing untold havoc, Sovereign had almost certainly struck at the few remaining vessels around the Citadel, and if Saren could gain access to the Master Control Unit, it would lock much-needed reinforcements away from the Widow Nebula as Sovereign opened the Relay to Dark Space and sent thousands of Reapers pouring through. To make matters worse, the Conduit was powering down as its rings began to spin slower than their previously furious pace. And there were a dozen heavy Geth units between them and the Conduit - on open ground, with no cover, and no maneuverability.

"I'd say so, but we don't have a lot of choice. We've got maybe thirty seconds before the Conduit closes. We go for it." Shepard floored the throttles of the Mako, pushing every last inch of power out of the tank's engines. "Wrex, divert all power from weapons into traction and shields." Within seconds he felt the boost of power rock them forward at an even faster pace than the full throttle they had been going at before.

"There is no way we're going to make this! We'll be sitting ducks down there with the Colossi when the Conduit closes!"

"Vakarian, if you had any semblance of a quad you wouldn't give two shits what might happen afterward!" Shepard felt the first blast from one of the Colossi rock the Mako as it deflected off the shields. The barriers would hold for maybe four or five more direct hits, but afterwards they'd be as good as dead.

The Mako careened up the banks of the narrow path that the stream made, and Shepard gunned the thrusters to keep the vehicle stable. The barriers were hovering at forty percent after two more direct hits. The Conduit had maybe five seconds left in its life-cycle, but they could almost feel the its warmth and power wrap around them as they neared it. Two more hits struck them, eliminating the last of the Mako's barrier and dealing severe damage to the armour on the hull.

"This is your commander advising you to hold the fuck on!" Shepard shouted as the roar of the Conduit overtook his hearing.

Shepard felt a strange feeling as they hit the Conduit, like a mix of the vertigo one got from free fall, but like being caught up in a cyclone at the same time. For a split second, he wondered whether their vehicle would be torn apart by the sheer power of the Conduit, and then his vision went blank as they were engulfed in a beam of electric-blue light.

**Command Deck, **_**Destiny Ascension**_** – Widow Nebula**

The young Asari officer looked about the bridge in panic. Things were not going well; the Council had been successfully evacuated, but they had lost all control over the Citadel and were losing ships fast to the Geth onslaught.

"_Destiny Ascension, _come in! This is the Turian Twelfth Cruiser Division. We are taking losses fast, requesting permission to withdraw to avoid being outflanked."

Matriarch Lindaya prowled the bridge of the enormous dreadnought, her hand curled into a fist and resting on her mouth in apprehension. She seemed to toy with the idea for a moment before she replied. "Belay that; the _Sovereign_ is making a run for the Citadel itself. Combine with the Turian Fifth Cruiser Division and the Salarian Ninth Frigate Division and use all necessary force to stop it!"

"Matriarch, the _Destiny Ascension _is taking heavy fire from the Geth cruisers. Our barriers can't last long in this close of combat!"

The Matriarch froze in place as the weight of the world seemed to bear down on her shoulders. The _Destiny Ascension_ wasn't equipped for a close-combat fight with Geth cruisers, and its shields would be cut to pieces in a matter of minutes. But it would leave the rest of the Turian and Salarian defense forces vulnerable to the awe-inspiring power of the _Sovereign_. "Withdraw the _Destiny Ascension_ out of the firing range of the Geth cruisers. If we can get a decent shot at the _Sovereign_ once our barriers have recovered, we will do so."

Lindaya watched as the Citadel slowly receded from view, yet the silhouettes of the Geth cruisers refused to get smaller; rather, they simply pursued the _Destiny Ascension_ and drove it further away from the Citadel, virtually locking it out of combat.

"_Destiny Ascension, _our cruisers are under heavy attack from both the Geth and the _Sovereign_. We are requesting assistance, I repeat: we are questioning emergency assistance!"

Lindaya turned to the two officers sitting immediately in front of her, "recall all Council fleets from their point of origin to the Widow Nebula, and send an emergency transmission to the Alliance."

The officer quickly keyed in the distress codes to Arcturus Station, yet did so again frantically within a few seconds. "Matriarch, I can't get a signal through!" She tried again, attempting to debug the system, "the Widow Relay appears to be inactive." An uneasy silence fell around the bridge of the _Destiny Ascension_. "We're completely cut off from the Alliance, Hierarchy, Union and Republic fleets."

"Send the signal on the quantum entanglement frequency. We should still be able to get a top-priority message through to Admiral Coryn!"

The officer tried again on a different channel, and seemed to sigh slightly after a few moments. "I think the signal got through, but the comm. buoys are patchy at best and the Relay is still disabled. So even if Admiral Coryn is aware of the situation, there's no way to get here. Someone on the Citadel has disabled the Relay." If that meant what Lindaya thought it meant, then the situation was worse than she'd thought; the entire Widow Nebula defense framework centred on controlling the Citadel and sealing it off from the outside world. With the Citadel out of their control, that plan had no chance of working.

"_Destiny Ascension_, this is the Turian Fifth Cruiser Division. The _Sovereign_ is making a run for the Citadel. We are engaging, I repeat: we are engaging. All units commence a full broadside against the _Sovereign_!" The bridge of the _Destiny Ascension_ watched as the five remaining Turian cruisers unleashed a barrage of fire at the massive ship that was storming menacingly towards the Citadel. As organized and coherent as the Turian cruisers were proving to be, they were no match for the sheer size and firepower of the _Sovereign_. Pure red beams of energy – even from this distance, Lindaya could tell that they weren't mass accelerator slugs – cut through the first two cruisers like a charged omniblade through raw flesh. A third was caught by a group of Geth frigates and cut to pieces, while the _Sovereign_ chose to simply ram the last two cruisers head on; at nearly three kilometers long, the massive dreadnought scattered the Turian cruisers like ragdolls, and they were consumed by the hellish explosions that tore them apart.

Something wasn't right. As the _Sovereign_ moved ever closer to the Citadel, the station's massive arms began to shift in their sockets, and Lindaya watched in horror as the station began to move into lockdown. The arms shifted to begin to form a cone that would cut the Citadel off completely from the outside world – it would be impenetrable from the outside, and no one understood the inner workings of the Citadel well enough to crack the mysterious codes that governed its movement and control. Yet still the _Sovereign_ moved forward – Lindaya hoped that the Citadel would seal against it, but the blood pooled in her gut as she watched the massive ship slip between the arms as they closed, sealing the dreadnought inside.

Lindaya watched in silence as the Citadel completed its defense mechanism, sealing itself completely from the outside world. She barely moved, save for the twitching of her left hand against the side of the command HUD. Her eyes darted back and forth at the officers around her, and at the steadily approaching Geth cruisers that were visible on the scanners.

"Matriarch, what are your orders? Matriarch?!"

Lindaya said nothing, did nothing, ordered nothing. Their fate seemingly sealed, she slumped down in the admiral's chair – defeated – and waited for the inevitable.

**CIC, SSV **_**Normandy**_** – Arcturus System**

The _Normandy_'s bridge was a cacophony of sound and action as the distress signal from the Citadel Fleet came in. they had seemingly lost contact with the Citadel, and now word was coming in from many of the Council battlegroups that the fleet stationed near the Hawking Eta Relay had been cut to pieces by Sovereign and the Geth fleet. Amidst the chaos, Liara leaned against the Galaxy Map's pedestal display, her eyes darting from reading to reading as the _Normandy_ communicated with the remainder of the Alliance Second, Third, and Fifth Fleets.

Admiral Hackett had taken Pressly and Joker's warnings quite seriously, and within an hour the Third and Fifth Fleets had congregated at Arcturus Station. When the distress signal was received from the Hawking Eta Battlegroup, Admiral Coryn had authorized the activation of the Second Fleet for combat duties as well, all forming a Joint Citadel Task Force under Hackett's command. All they were waiting for was the word from the Citadel to jump through the Relay.

But word never came, and once it did the scans from the recon frigates suggested that the Widow Relay was no longer functioning – some unseen force on the other side was blocking it. Liara had nearly collapsed in terror when they had realized that the way was shut. When she had gone to Shepard's cabin the night before, she had done so fearing that they would never see another day, but she had told herself that this was simply planning for the worst; the fact that the worst seemed to have arrived caught her completely off guard. Her heart was gripped in fear, and as more and more reports of chaos and destruction came into the Joint Citadel Task Force her sense of panic only increased.

The world seemed to be coming apart around her; all Liara could do was pray to the Goddess that Shepard would save them in time.

**Presidium Commons, Citadel – Widow Nebula**

Shepard felt the vertigo end forcefully as they were plunged back into reality. He was only aware of the Mako careening out of control, his sense of gravity and balance completely thrown off. The deafening hum of the Conduit's power source cut out, and he was suddenly aware of the absence of the blinding light of the massive structure.

After several seconds of nausea-inducing chaotic motion, the Mako skidded to a halt, though from the angle Shepard could tell that it was semi-inverted on its one side. He could already smell the scent of burning metal as small electrical fires broke out in the Mako. Glancing backwards into the Mako's compartment, he noted that Garrus and Wrex were more-or-less okay, albeit thoroughly shaken up.

"Is everyone alright back there?"

Garrus's seat had come loose from its anchor in the last moments of the tumble through the Conduit, and he was sprawled across the floor with one leg dangling awkwardly over the remnants of the seat. "Ugh….fucking fantastic, thanks for asking." Wrex nodded in agreement, and then kicked the remnants of the seat across the compartment.

"We'll live. Any idea where we are?"

Shepard looked out the cracked visor of the Mako. It was dark in front of him, and they were very obviously inside a massive artificial structure, yet it appeared to be in a serious state of damage and ruin. Through the glass, he could make out the faintest glimmer of a vast ceiling that arced away from them. "I think…I think we're in the Presidium." Shepard carefully repositioned himself in the Mako and kicked outward violently at the small panel in the floor between the driver's seat and the engineering panel. The panel crumpled under his blow, but refused to dislodge itself from the bottom of the vehicle. Swearing to himself, he kicked out again, and felt the panel give way beneath him. The three of them sprawled out of the Mako and onto the cold steel floor of the Presidium.

Shepard glanced back to see where they had landed. At the base of the Citadel Tower was a gleaming obsidian-carved Mass Relay, supposedly dedicated as a monument to their technological prowess by the Protheans. Shepard could see the rings of the relay-model slowing in their revolution as the Conduit powered down.

"That was the Conduit?! Dammit! I walked by that thing every single day I worked at C-SEC; I never would have guessed that was what it was!"

Shepard barely had time to respond as they sprinted for the elevator that led to the Citadel Tower. "I think that was the point; a secret back door hardly works if it's not secret!" they reached the elevator in no time, and were surprised to find it still functioning. The bodies of C-SEC personnel and Geth alike littered the ground in front of the reception area by the elevator, several of them in a state of brutal mutilation.

"Look at this," Garrus knelt at the shoulders of one of the C-SEC officers, "I worked with him, but this," he scanned his omnitool over the vicious scar on the front of the corpse's body, "is definitely not Geth – at least it isn't consistent with what we've found so far. If this is Saren…then he's much more powerful than I thought he was." They entered the elevator as Shepard hit the marker for the Citadel Council Chambers. The elevator ascended rapidly through the confines of the Citadel Tower, propelling them ever closer to their destination. Wrex impatiently tinkered with the mods on his shotgun, while Garrus stared upward apprehensively.

Below them, Shepard saw the gleaming lights of the Citadel Wards begin to darken in sections, moving outward from the utmost extremities of the station and further in towards the Presidium Ring. The blackout was systematic and total – barely any light remained. He could feel the pace of their elevator slow, and then grind to a halt. The tower around them was plunged into darkness, though Shepard could still feel the light wind of the life support systems; clearly, Saren was still reliant on oxygen like the rest of them.

"How far from the Council Chambers are we?"

Garrus activated his omnitool and ran a quick scan of their position. "Based on triangulations with the Wards, I would say about three quarters of the way up. It's about a click further up the tower. There's a maintenance airlock near there that should give us access to the Council Chambers."

Shepard drew his assault rifle from his shoulder-attachment as Wrex did the same. "That's good enough for me. Pressurize your suits!" Garrus drew his helmet from its clip on his back and fitted it to his armour as Wrex did the same. "We're going on a little excursion!" Wrex fired his shotgun straight into the window, shattering it instantly and exposing them to the vacuum of space. Adjusting his positioning, Shepard felt the strange effects of no longer being in the thrall of the Citadel's gravity as he righted himself along the axis of the Citadel Tower.

The sight that greeted him terrified him. He had known that the great arms of the Citadel had closed, yet he was unprepared to see the massive form of Sovereign embarked at the top of the Citadel Tower. Its enormous claws had wrapped around the tip above the Council Chambers, and they occasionally shifted as the Reaper prepared to assume control of the Station's functions. There was only one direction they could really go, and they set off at a sprint towards the upper reaches of the tower.

The first corner they turned greeted them with a half-dozen Geth and a Krogan mercenary. Garrus immobilized the Geth with a powerful overlord field before Shepard cut them to pieces with his biotics. He trapped the Krogan in a stasis field as Wrex rained down shot after shot on its armour. By the time the field wore off the Krogan was already dead – not even its secondary and tertiary systems could save it from the punishment they threw at it.

The tight winding corridors gave way to a sprawling ridge of bulkheads and ventilation, and Shepard quickly dipped into one of the ventilation channels to avoid the bulk of the Geth now congregating on either side of them. Transport ships swarmed above them, dropping more troops as they wove their way through the channel. They barely slowed their pace, though Garrus occasionally poked his head up to fire a burst from his assault rifle to ward off approaching Geth. When they reached the end of the channel they ran as if their lives depended on it, with Shepard and Wrex both deploying their barriers to absorb more of the hail of fire streaming towards them from all sides.

They quickly found themselves in another of the narrow corridors sloping downward on the Tower, with the way blocked by a squad of advancing Geth. Shepard lifted three of them into the air with his biotics, making them easy targets for Garrus to pick off. Wrex downed two with his shotgun and another with a biotic Warp, while Garrus overloaded the circuitry of an advancing Geth Juggernaut and left it collapsing into a pile of burning scrap. They crossed the distance between the next ascending ramp rapidly, not even pausing to tear apart the few Geth that got in their way. The ramp gave way to another open expanse on the wall of the tower, and Shepard watched hesitantly as another of the Geth transports rocketed overhead.

"If we're lucky, that transport doesn't notice that we're here an-, fuck." Garrus swore as the transport spun in place and began to unload Geth troops around them. While Shepard and Wrex were immediately drawn into fighting off the drop-pods of Geth that were descending rapidly, his eyes went to the three dormant defense turrets that skirted the perimeter of the small clearing. "Those probably still work. Cover me while I hack them!" Shepard and Wrex jointly shuffled towards the first turret, shielding Garrus from the Geth as his omnitool finished the hack. "Oh this is ridiculous," he muttered to himself, "they didn't even both with the latest software update. You'd think that C-SEC would have been more diligent with these things; this never would have happened if I had still been here." He heard the satisfying click that indicated that the hack was complete, and motioned to Shepard and Wrex to head for the next battery.

The turret sprang to life almost immediately, its massive gun swivelling to face the hovering Geth transport that was now dropping a platoon of shock troopers in the centre of the area. Shot after shot rained down on the transport as Garrus finished hacking the second turret, which promptly joined the chorus of hell being unleashed at the Geth transport. As they reached the final turret on the edge of the area, Shepard threw himself at the large crowd of Geth in the centre. Their proximity to one another had served to concentrate fire on Garrus, but it quickly turned into a weakness as Shepard attacked them with a mix of biotics and weapons-fire at close quarters. It bought Garrus all the time he needed on the third turret, and it quickly snapped into action as well against the transport.

"That's all we can do! Get the hell out of here and keep pushing forward!" Garrus followed Shepard's lead as the transport began to smolder under the punishment it was taking from the turrets. Wrex swatted aside another of the Geth as the three of them ducked behind another bulkhead that seemed to lead further up the tower.

The channel through the bowels of the tower led to another open expanse, this one lined with a pair of heavy turrets that the Geth had hardwired to attack any unrecognized signatures that stepped into their path. Garrus spotted them only seconds before they would have reduced all three of them to cinders and pulled Shepard and Wrex behind a raised bulkhead to the side of the channel that ran further up the tower. "Two turrets up ahead. They're heavily shielded, rigged to kill us on sight."

Shepard craned his neck to get a glimpse over the top of the bulkhead, before ducking back down as a shot narrowly grazed the bulkhead where his head had just been. "Garrus, how thick do you figure the armour is on that turret?"

Garrus glanced up quickly to allow his visor to intake the specifications of the battery. "Probably…eight inches of triple-reinforced durasteel. Looks to be one of the heavier models they use on the Citadel defenses. We could sit here all day and not even make a dent in those things."

"The Reapers will be through and done with the Citadel well before that." Shepard stuck his head above the bulkhead again to track the firing patterns of the turret, then pulled back down as another rocket whizzed overhead. "Alright, we'll have to break for it and hope we don't get picked off. Garrus, shift a bit further down to the next channel over – Wrex, do the same to the other side. Move in sets – they can't hit all three of us at once."

"You do realize there's a good chance this backfires horribly, we end up isolated, and we all die?"

"That's just a risk we have to take at this point; I don't see us having any other choice." Shepard rearmed his pistol and deployed his barrier. "If this goes badly, it has been an honour to serve with both of you." Garrus and Wrex both nodded, and then broke cover as they darted for their channels.

Shepard sprinted through the corridor like a man possessed, every ounce of his energy going into powering himself forward whilst maintaining the barrier. He could see Garrus out of the corner of his eye running low to the ground, his assault rifle firing in bursts at the Geth snipers crowded near the turrets. Shepard ducked behind cover as the first rocket sailed over his head, then rolled out and kept sprinting towards the safety of the next bulkhead. He could hear, though he could not see, Wrex surviving the onslaught of fire coming his way, and when he managed to get a look it seemed as if his barriers were holding out well.

Wrex and Garrus eventually managed to join Shepard again in a small central area within the minimum firing range of the turrets, giving them a brief respite from the rockets that continued to fire overhead. The Geth continued to close in on them, and they continued to fire back at them as the synthetics advanced.

"How much farther to the airlock?"

Garrus scanned the area in between bursts of assault rifle fire. "See that channel there?" He pointed to a small corridor that sloped left away from the range of the turrets and around the arc of the tower, "There should be an airlock down that ramp and to the right about fifty metres."

They ducked back into cover and made their way towards the ramp relatively unmolested by the Geth. A pair of shock troopers gave them minimal difficulty at the bottom of the slope downwards, and when they turned to the right they could see the airlock in front of them, its lights flickering on and off as they approached it. "Looks to be near the end of its power reserves," Garrus remarked, "If we're lucky, I should be able to bypass the hack modules and open the door quickly. If not…let's just hope we're lucky." He flicked on his omnitool open and began to rapidly tap the display that connected with the door. "Good. They didn't change the codes – that'll save us some time."

Shepard glanced around as the hack continued. "We don't have a lot of time. Saren's probably well into the process of transferring control-,"

"-at which point we all die, I get it," Garrus snapped back, "almost there…got it." The lights on the airlock flashed to green as the doors slid open. The three of them quickly rushed through the door and were thrown off-balance by the sudden shift in gravity; where previously it had centred around the Citadel Tower itself, the floor on the other side of the airlock was perpendicular to the external gravity of the Citadel. Shepard disentangled himself from the mass of armour and weapons they had formed on the floor and examined their surroundings. The room they had landed in was dimly lit, and it plunged to near-total darkness when the airlock shut behind them. Shepard heard the faint sound of the room decontaminating them and resynchronizing the room with the internal pressure before the door on the other side slid open.

"What the-, I worked on this station for years and I never knew this was here." The door seemed to form part of the wall of the entryway to the highest floor of the Citadel Tower from the elevator. When Shepard had been here less than a day earlier, it had been notable for its grandeur and its opulence, yet that already looked like a lifetime ago. The scarlet walls were coated in various colours of blood, and the bodies of three C-SEC agents lay at Shepard's feet along with the hulk of a single Geth shock trooper. The welcome desk had been overturned and scarred by weaponsfire, and the doorway to one of the elevators was smashed in.

Shepard, Garrus and Wrex stepped over the boundary and through the opening door to the main Citadel Council chamber. Fires burned on nearly all levels, with the perpetually-blossoming trees at the base of the chamber scorched to ash. Alarms raged in the background, but there seemed to be no activity whatsoever. The rotunda was covered in rubble from the damaged ceiling, and the three of them had to change direction several times to get to the first stairwell. They were met on the second elevated terrace by a small squad of elite Geth shock troopers, yet these were dispatched with ease by Garrus and Wrex as Shepard broke into an open run for the top of the Council chambers. He could see Saren's form up ahead as they approached the Council pedestal. Less than a day ago, Shepard had stood on the same walkway, facing the same seat of power as the rogue Turian now did. Yet instead of the images or forms of the Council members, Saren's back was to Shepard, his focus seemingly intent on the holographic panel in front of him. It wasn't a panel that Shepard had seen before, but if he had to guess it was the one to which Vigil had referred – the Master Control Unit for the Citadel's functions.

As they reached the final ascending level of the Council Chambers, the holographic screen shifted to a deep red colour and Saren disappeared from view. Shepard halted at the foot of the elongated walkway and pointed his assault rifle towards the screen, only to see Saren begin to rise behind it on the base of his small personal hovercraft. He heard the distinct sound of a proximity charge activating, and threw himself behind cover as Saren lobbed the charge at where they had just been standing, sending a column of fire and smoke up that reverberated around the room.

Saren walked towards them calmly, with a cool air of supreme confidence. "Commander John Cameron Shepard, First Lieutenant Garrus Vakarian, and Chief Urdot Wrex…I was afraid that you wouldn't make it in time."

Shepard swivelled from behind cover and brought himself to stand facing Saren, his pistol pointed directly at the Turian's chest. "In time for what?"

"A final confrontation, and here we are – face-to-face at the top of the Citadel, no outside forces or ships to interrupt us and no Salarians or Councillors getting in the way. I think we both expected that it would end like this. In a way, I find it very fitting that it will." Saren shifted his weight slightly and the hovercraft began to move from side to side, "you've lost – you know that, don't you? In a matter of minutes, Sovereign will have full control of the Citadel's systems. The Relay to Dark Space will open, and at long last the Reapers shall return."

"You were confident I wouldn't escape the Citadel alive after accusing you of treason. You were confident that your troops would get to Liara first, you were confident that Matriarch Benezia would stop me, that the Thorian wouldn't yield its secrets, and that I wouldn't leave Virmire alive. What makes you honestly think that this time will be different?"

"You survived on Virmire – due in no small part to my own failings. But I've changed since then. Sovereign has helped me…improve."

The manner in which he spoke the last word sent chills through Shepard's spine. "It implanted you," he spoke calmly while keeping his pistol trained on Saren at all times. He could sense Garrus and Wrex moving behind him, though whether it was to get a better firing angle he wasn't sure. "Are you out of your mind?"

Saren's arm glowed with the force of his biotics, and seconds later Garrus and Wrex were both firmly trapped in powerful stasis fields that prevented them from moving. "I suppose I should thank you, Shepard. I couldn't get out of my head the notion that you put there – that Sovereign might have been manipulating me." Shepard glanced at his paralyzed squadmates, and when he looked back at Saren he saw for the first time that the Turian's eyes burned a brilliant bright blue – the same fire that he had seen devour the eyes of Benezia and the Salarian captives on Virmire. "Doubts began to eat away at me, and Sovereign sensed my hesitation. Given what I was about to attempt, that was unacceptable – it could have resulted in any number of possible failures. Yes, I was implanted, but it was only for the purpose of strengthening my resolve. My doubts are gone. I believe in Sovereign completely. I see what you do not: the Reapers need organics – why else would they exhibit such an incredible power in the first place? Sovereign has even seen your own value – as a soldier, as a leader, as a warrior. If you were to join us, Sovereign would find a place for you too in the new order that is about to begin."

"You were right – the control is total, and Sovereign is dominating you through your implants. You've lost any sort of independent thought – don't you see that?"

Saren's grin turned into a snarl as he threw another proximity mine at Shepard, forcing him to twist and roll out of the way onto less sure footing. "You are wrong. The relationship is symbiotic – organic and machine intertwined, a perfect union of flesh and steel. I have the strengths of both, and the weaknesses of neither. I am evolution perfected! I am a vision of the future! This is our destiny. If you join Sovereign, you will experience true rebirth!"

"I've seen what this union results in – the Protheans did too. It led to their destruction. If those are my options, I'll at least die with my mind intact."

"Then you will die. The Reapers cannot be stopped – not by the Protheans, and certainly not by you. The Cycle will always continue. Everyone you know will die – your family, your species, you crew, even your precious Asari-,"

Rage boiled over in Shepard as he threw himself at Saren with all the force his biotics could muster. The lunge caught the Turian completely off-guard, throwing both of them from the hovercraft and onto the walkway across from the seats of the Council. The Turian rolled out from under him rapidly, landing a metallic fist firmly on Shepard's back. Before Saren could deliver the killing blow, Shepard brought his heel into solid contact with the Turian's side, throwing him bodily against the walkway's railing. Saren vaulted over him and back onto his hovercraft, but Shepard was already rolling for the safety of cover.

"The Reapers cannot be defeated Shepard – you've seen the same visions that I've seen. If we try to fight, we are doomed. My way is the only way that _any_ of us survive this."

"I can override Sovereign's control of the station – I can permanently lock the Reapers out of accessing the Citadel's control unit; the same VI that you chose to ignore on Virmire gave me the program to do so. Some part of you must still realize that this is wrong! You can still fight this – we can still fight this! Sovereign needed you in the first place to carry out its plan – if you turn back on it, there is nothing it can do to stop you!"

Saren seemed to almost consider the option for a moment. "Could you truly shut the Reapers out? Does a program that powerful exist? If you're right, then there is still a chance for-," Saren doubled over in pain, his jaw opening in a primal scream that never came. His form twisted on the hovercraft as the mechanical implants seemed to take control.

_"You will submit to me!" _the voice that Saren emitted wasn't entirely Sovereign's, but it wasn't entirely his either. _"You will transfer control of the Citadel to me!"_

Shepard couldn't believe what he was seeing unfold before him. The implants had given Saren an imposing figure that positively radiated power, but the implants seemed to take control and try to bend him to Sovereign's will. "Fight this!" Shepard screamed at the Turian contorted in pain in front of him, "Fight it!"

_"SUBMIT!"_

The control of Sovereign relaxed Saren's hold on Garrus and Wrex, and they both collapsed out of their stasis fields as Saren continued to writhe in agony in front of them.

"Shepard, I think I might have a clear headshot on him," Garrus offered once he was back on his feet, "do you want me to take it?"

Shepard's initial thought was to do so, but at that moment the pain sweeping through Saren seemed to ease up slightly. "No! I will not submit to you! I am not your slave, Sovereign! You need me!"

_"I need your vessel – nothing more. You will submit."_

Saren was down on all fours, and he extended a clawed hand forward to Shepard as the glow in his eyes dimmed for a moment. "Shepard, the implants….they're too strong…Sovereign's hold on me…is too powerful. Please…end it." Shepard had expected to feel any number of emotions – rage, fury, hatred, revulsion – but pity certainly wasn't one of them. Swallowing slowly, he grimaced and nodded to Garrus, who trained his sniper rifle on Saren's skull. "Goodbye Shepard. Thank-you."

Garrus was about to pull the trigger when Saren's possessed body snapped back up into a standing position, and the shot grazed the sheer metal where his skull had been resting only moments before. Shepard's reflexes were quicker than the Turian's, and his pistol was trained firmly between Saren's eyes in a matter of moments; before he was fully aware of it, he heard the sound of a single round being emptied into Saren's skull. The round entered and left Saren's head cleanly, and it took only moments for the Turian's glowing eyes to dim. The body tilted slightly and then went limp, falling off of the platform and crashing through the glass panels below. Saren hit the ground hard amidst the garden below them. Blood began to pool around the corpse, but the look on Saren's face was not one of pain or fury – as was often the case when combat deaths occurred – but of peace and silence.

"Good shot." Garrus's voice cut through the haze in Shepard's head.

"All this time he thought he was saving us," Shepard spoke through heavy breaths as he struggled to bring himself down from the adrenaline high the fighting had created, "but he was just a slave – just like Benezia, just like so many before him." He looked at the panel in front of him, which had flickered back to life as he approached the edge of the walkway. "Let's finish this." The controls were relatively easy to grasp, and Shepard quickly inserted the OSD that gave him complete control of the Citadel's systems. He guided the console towards the screen that would allow him to unlock both the Citadel's defensive matrix and the reactivate the Mass Relays that led to the Widow Nebula. He grinned to himself as the console flashed green to indicate that the action had been completed.

"….-del, _Arcturus_ Station to the Citadel. Does anyone read? Please come in!"

Of all the voices Shepard had expected to hear buzz into his earpiece, Admiral Steven Hackett's had not been among them. "Admiral? This is Commander Shepard."

"Shepard?!" Joker's voice joined Hackett's in his ear, "you have got to be kidding me; you actually made it onto the Citadel?"

"I did. The situation's bad: Saren nearly succeeded in transferring full control of the station over to Sovereign itself, the Citadel is locked down, and we really don't know what exactly is going on."

"The Relays to the Widow Nebula have been closed off for the better part of an hour," Hackett explained with remarkable calm, "we've had sporadic reports creeping in through the Quantum systems from the _Destiny Ascension_ and other Citadel units. Their fleet is getting cut to pieces, and the _Ascension_ can't last much longer. What do you want us to do?"

"What are your resources like?"

"I've got three fleets lined up with most of the heavy firepower of the Alliance Fleet. The First is still guarding the Charon Relay and the Fourth is in reserve at Terra Nova. I've got five dreadnoughts, about twenty cruisers, and several dozen smaller craft."

"Divert two cruiser divisions and three frigate divisions to the _Destiny Ascension_ and get the rest of the Citadel Fleet out of harm's way. Once you're through, I'm going to deactivate the Citadel's bunker defense and expose Sovereign, which has currently wrapped itself around the Citadel Tower. You'll need to concentrate practically every big gun you have on it if you even want a chance of destroying it. I'll try and hold it out of the systems here for as long as possible!"

Shepard saw the console flip to indicate that the Widow Relay had opened, and listened as the indicators on the Relay traffic blurred together from the volume of ships swarming through. The Alliance fleet numbered close to a hundred ships, ranging from individual fighters to the indomitable _Everest_-class dreadnoughts. Ships continued to pour through and Shepard watched on the tracking monitor as the fleet split into two distinct groups. The first raced directly for the embattled remnants of the Citadel Defense Fleet. The frigates – led by a clearly-marked _Normandy_ – sped towards the Geth cruisers with incredible swiftness, rapidly closing the distance to render the long-range pulse weapons ineffective and drawing the fire of Geth fighters and interceptors away from the Alliance cruisers. The Geth were unprepared for the presence of invigorated and fresh reinforcements, and the Alliance cruisers and frigates tore through them in a matter of minutes. A dozen Geth cruisers were engulfed in fire before the first Alliance cruiser was destroyed – the _Seoul_. The distress signals of the _Destiny Ascension_ began to waver, then stop entirely as the ship was cleared from immediate danger by the Alliance.

"This is Admiral Hackett to all Citadel units – withdraw to a safe distance to regroup and recharge barriers. Alliance units prepare to attack the flagship of Saren's fleet. When the Citadel opens, concentrate all fire on _Sovereign_." The second portion of the fleet – consisting of the majority of the cruisers and all of the dreadnoughts – made for the Citadel. Shepard watched them approach on the monitor and calmly deactivated the Citadel's defensive mechanism.

The light from the soft glow of the Widow Nebula was blinding when it pierced through the darkness that had consumed the bay of windows in the Council Chamber. From where they were standing, they couldn't see Sovereign's enormous claws wrapped around the Citadel Tower, but they could gradually make out the outlines of ships beginning to move through the ever-widening cracks in the separating arms of the Citadel.

"Hit that monster with everything we've got!"

Even without full visibility of the Reaper itself, Shepard could hear the onslaught being unleashed on Sovereign from the Alliance fleet, as every gun under Hackett's command turned itself to open fire on the Reaper. He could see a pair of Alliance cruisers – one of which looked like the _Cairo_ he had served on barely a month ago – firing their heavy weapons at Sovereign, the twin-linked cannons going off in a pair of synchronized bursts every ten seconds.

It seemed only a matter of time before a helpless Sovereign was destroyed by the awesome power of the Alliance Navy, but Shepard's gaze was drawn to the bloodied body below him. Sovereign had shown a remarkable ability to possess virtually anything around it – including one of the most hardened Spectres that the Council had ever known. He had even seen the dead possessed by the Rachni Queen on Noveria, and he had to be sure that this was the last they would see of the Turian Spectre.

He gestured to Garrus and Wrex and then to Saren's corpse. "Make sure he's dead." Garrus and Wrex nodded silently and leapt down through the shattered ceiling, their weapons out. Wrex was the first to Saren's corpse, advancing menacingly as he pumped round after round into Saren's body, the last delivered with concussive force into the Turian's skull.

Blood splattered across the walls of the atrium, and Garrus looked up at Shepard and nodded. "He's definitely dead."

Shepard was about to turn his back to them when a shiver went down his spine unlike anything he had ever felt before. It travelled up his neck and towards the tip of his head; he closed his eyes in a vain effort to shake off the feeling. He nearly went into shock when his neck was forcibly snapped backward by some unseen force, his eyes forced open as he lifted his head in a scream that never came. _"And here you thought I would be defeated so easily?"_ Sovereign's voice beat at the edges of his mind, forcing itself into his thoughts. _"You know nothing of the power We wield. I am Sovereign, and this station will be mine!"_

His body was forced to swivel around as red arcs of electricity began to shift around the Council Chambers, pooling at the feet of Saren's broken body. The arcs began to sift through Saren's corpse, and Shepard watched in horror as the implanted limbs began to twich, then writhe as Sovereign assumed full control of Saren's synthetics. His organic body melted away as the energy consumed him, leaving behind the skeletal and glowing frame of a heavily synthetic Saren Arterius. Claws of sheer metal unwrapped themselves from Saren's enfolded arms. The synthetic Turian unleashed a massive electrical flare that threw Garrus and Wrex back against the walls of the chamber below Shepard, and the walkway he was standing on suddenly gave way and collapsed into the room below them.

Shepard was thrown directly in front of the synthetic Saren, which stared down at him menacingly with glowing red eyes radiating Sovereign's power and hatred for this upstart human who had so attempted to foil his plans. A steel claw swept down at him and Shepard raised his assault rifle to block the blow. The weapon was cut in half by the claw, but it succeeded in deflecting the blow away from Shepard and into the soft earth beside him. He narrowly rolled out of the way of the second blow, but when he tried to kick upward the creature's incredible strength pinned him to the ground.

Wrex was the first to recover from the shock of the flare, and he furiously charged Saren's synthetic body and succeeding in getting it off of Shepard, who rolled back onto his feet and drew his shotgun. Saren leapt to the wall opposite him with tremendous agility, and immediately fired off a series of energy bursts that levelled the room and melted the metal frame above them that had once held the glass Saren had fallen through. A brilliant burst of light followed that fried the sensors on every active weapon they were carrying, and Shepard swore to himself as he switched to his pistol. Saren's metallic body moved rapidly, scuttling across the floor on all fours towards him. Garrus's tech attacks seemed ineffective against Saren's Reaper-imbued protective shields. Shepard's biotics also seemed harmless, and so he kept firing away with his pistol as Saren circled the perimeter of the room.

The sky above them through the window flashed red for a moment, and was followed by a flurry of frantic chatter on Shepard's comms from a number of Alliance units.

"Holy hell! Sovereign just took out the _Cairo_, _Warsaw_, _Madrid_, _Emden _and _Cape Town_ in a single shot! We're getting hammered out here; we have to pull back!"

"-shields at twenty percent. We won't survive another shot like that. Those things cut through our cruisers like they weren't even there!"

"This is Hackett; keep firing! We have to bring this monster down!"

Shepard redoubled his efforts as the din of the battle raging outside the Citadel Tower drowned out virtually all of the hostilities inside. Saren's synthetic form continued to dart around the room, firing precisely-aimed bursts of energy at them as it latched onto the walls and then threw itself once again across the room. But they seemed to be gaining the upper hand against it; Saren's possessed body was beginning to tire, and Sovereign seemed to be straining under the onslaught of both the Alliance Navy and Shepard's squad within the Citadel.

The killing blow seemed to come from Garrus, who fired a single shot that pierced Saren's shields and sent another flare of energy around the room. An unshielded Saren threw itself at Shepard, pinning him to the wall and staring him straight in the face with its burning eyes. _"This is only the beginning; I am the Vanguard of your Destruction. I..AM…SOVEREIGN!"_

Shepard twisted out of Saren's grasp and brought his biotically charged fist down on its skull, throwing it backwards into the centre of the room. Exhausted and nearly passing out from the pain, Shepard drew his pistol and painstakingly aimed it at Saren's metallic skull. "but you're still mortal, and you will still die." He felt his finger squeeze down on the trigger, felt the slight recoil in his wrist and watched with satisfaction as the round connected with Saren's metallic frame. The skeletal Turian body was thrown backwards and began to dissolve in a pool of sparkling red energy that burned through the soil around it. Shepard's senses were overwhelmed by the sound of metal scraping against metal, and then the silence of the grave as the last vestiges of Saren Arterius were burned into ash.

Shepard looked across at his two companions as they began to ascend the ladder out of the garden area and back to the main level of the Council chambers. Garrus sported a pair of nasty dents in his armour and was bleeding from a gash on his head, while even as he slowed his movement Wrex could still be seen twitching irritably, his higher processes transferring back from his secondary nerve system. Shepard joined them on the ladder, the chatter in his ear resuming again.

"Admiral, this is Commander Lawrence. My readings are saying that Sovereign's shields are temporarily down. It looks to be listing away from the Tower; is anyone else seeing this?"

"This is the _Everest_ – we're seeing the same thing."

"All units – commence full broadside against Sovereign. Now's our chance to destroy it!"

From Shepard's vantage point in the Citadel chambers, he could see the remaining human vessels open fire on Sovereign from extremely close range. Explosion after explosion rippled across the Reaper's hulking body as it fell from its perch on the Citadel Tower, its underside exposed to the full wrath of the Alliance Navy. Unmolested fighters and interceptors sped around its enormous frame eliminating its smaller GARDIAN-style turrets.

"This is the _Normandy_, we're going in!" From several kilometers out from the Citadel, Shepard watched the _Normandy_ dive hard at Sovereign's exposed underside, its wings folding inwards to build up more speed. As it came into solid view, Shepard watched as his ship launched a single fully-charged disruptor torpedo directly at the Reaper. The shot tore straight through the Reaper as the _Normandy_ swerved to avoid Sovereign's now-flailing claws. Within seconds, Sovereign's entire frame was engulfed in a colossal explosion that tore the Reaper asunder, its mass effect core imploding upon itself and sending shards of the ship flying in all directions. The explosion was brilliant – a bright red that momentarily blinded Shepard and many of the Alliance crews watching from their vessels. Cheers rang out through Shepard's earpiece among both the _Normandy_'s crew and the Alliance captains who had survived. Shepard could see similar expressions of triumph on the faces of Garrus and Wrex – Sovereign was destroyed, the Reapers were trapped in Dark Space, and they had won.

Triumph turned to dismay and panic as the shadow began to loom over them – a massive piece of wreckage from the destruction of Sovereign was hurtling towards the Council chambers at an unsettlingly fast pace. Within seconds, the wreckage blotted out all light from the Widow Nebula, and Shepard could almost feel the inevitable coming as he turned to run in any direction away from the chamber's vast bay of windows.

He turned to scream at Garrus and Wrex to flee, but his cries were obscured by the ear-splitting crash of a thousand panels of glass shattering at once as the wreckage collided with the Council chambers. He felt a weight of an unbearable proportion crash against him, and for only the second time in his life he knew the fear of death staring back at him. His mind panicked and spun out to the far corners of his memory, frantically looking for any image that would calm his screaming nerves. For a moment, he again pictured a solitary pair of luminous, curved eyes the colour of sparkling sapphires, and for an instant pictured Liara's face before his world went black.


	15. Epilogue: Salvation

_**Epilogue: Salvation**_

Liara's heart shifted from elation to panic as she watched the fragmented wreckage of Sovereign crash into the Citadel Tower full-force; she heard Shepard's comms shatter into static and then silence. The whole ship reacted with an air of horror, and Joker almost immediately began to race for the nearest docking port. Liara was the first off the ship, tailed closely by Kaidan. All around them, Alliance detachments were landing to begin sweeping the Citadel for Geth stragglers that remained, and to ensure that the presence of Saren and Sovereign alike was purged from the magnificent structure. Wreckage continued to rain down on the Citadel as they moved through the docking bays, and many of the Alliance landing vessels were shredded by the shards of metal that punctured their barriers as if they weren't there; even in death, Sovereign found a way to unleash havoc.

They ran into Captain Anderson at the C-SEC base of operations, where he and Executor Pallin had led a vicious defense against Saren's army with the C-SEC forces they could muster. Anderson had been unaware of what had transpired within the Citadel Tower, though he presumed that Shepard was somehow involved and rushed off with them for the Citadel Tower when he learned what had transpired.

Liara's heart began to drop as they reached the Presidium and saw the sheer scale of destruction that Sovereign had wrought on the Citadel Tower. It wasn't supposed to end like this – they had won, defeated the forces of Saren and prevented the Reapers from unleashing untold destruction upon the races of the Galaxy, yet all that triumph was evaporated in a moment as the very real possibility of Shepard not surviving the impact came crashing down around her. Debris continued to rain down and send large chunks of the skylight falling towards the Presidium itself. Liara, Kaidan and Anderson piled into the one still-functioning elevator that led to the Citadel Tower.

"Jesus Christ, look at the damage to this place," Kaidan remarked as they ascended the Citadel Tower. The glass on the side of the tower gave a full view of both Sovereign and the wreckage of the Alliance Fleet. More than a half-dozen cruisers and nearly twenty frigates had been destroyed in the attack, and the wreckage was catastrophic – it would take months to fully clean the Citadel of the debris. Sovereign itself seemed to have disintegrated into a million shards of metal and durasteel, which were now scattered across the width of the Citadel. The mass effect core still smoldered in the centre of the blast pattern, its flaming shards gradually cooling from the catastrophic explosion that had torn the vessel apart.

Liara's heart sank even further when they reached the Council Chambers themselves. A massive piece of Sovereign's mandible had wedged itself firmly into the room and blocked virtually all light from the exterior of the room. Fires raged out of control where the debris had made contact with the main server lines, and the once-radiant trees that had dotted the Council Chambers were gutted – having long since burned themselves to ash. The bodies of Geth, Keepers and Citadel Security alike littered the lower reaches of the hall, and Liara saw the distinct traces of biotic attacks on several of them; clearly, Shepard had been here. Liara sank to her knees, her body wracked by sobs that wouldn't come and by tears that wouldn't flow. Around her, repair and rescue crews fanned out from other elevators in the tower atrium to begin the process of looking for bodies. The C-SEC ones were identified, tagged, and quickly removed, while repair crews began to cut through the wreckage.

After ten minutes of cutting and shifting, they found Garrus and Wrex, both huddled beneath a large set of beams and steel plates that had crashed through the Citadel Tower when Sovereign was destroyed. Garrus sported several large gashes on his armour, while Wrex wore several new scars on his face and appeared to have lost a lot of blood. Garrus looked bewildered as his eyes adjusted to the light.

Anderson was the first one there, peering down into the cut hole with his omnitool. "Easy, easy! We've got you – you're out of danger now!" He offered a hand down to Garrus, who gladly took it and pulled himself up out of the wreckage. Wrex kicked out violently at the separated portion of the beam, and quickly forged himself an exit large enough for his massive body to maneuver through. "Where's Shepard? Where's the Commander?"

Garrus stumbled over to where Liara and Kaidan were standing, offering an outstretched hand to both of them. Kaidan grasped it firmly and helped the Turian to stand, and Liara could hear that his breathing was heavy and laboured. "Shepard told us to run…we got hit," he mouthed frantically through gasps of air, "not sure what happened to him."

Liara was about to scream when a muffled sound came from somewhere further into the wreckage, and then the sound of biotics being flared. She saw the source of the commotion as shards of metal were propelled into the air, and she bolted away from Kaidan, Garrus and Anderson and began to climb over the mountains of wreckage. There was another eruption of metal into the air, then another, and then finally the sound of a laboured shout that Liara recognized as Shepard's voice. Her heart began to beat rapidly as she approached the source of the movement, and she practically threw herself towards the final panel of metal that stood in her way.

She found Shepard on all fours, doubled over in pain as blood streamed from a wound on his side. His armour was scratched, dented and torn in a multitude of places, and his hair was matted with a thick dust of blood, metal and ash. His breathing was laboured as Liara brought his struggling frame up against hers, embracing him fiercely as she beheld him – alive. His free hand – the one not covered in blood and cuts – wrapped around her back, and he pulled her closer as his breathing slowed slightly. He managed to say a single word to her before he passed out from exhaustion and blood-loss, but to her it was the most important word in the world when his voice said it.

"Liara."

**Forum Hotel – Citadel Presidium, Widow Nebula – Eight Days Later**

Shepard sat himself in the plush armchair opposite the door in the room the Alliance had booked for him. Built in one of the few areas of the Presidium not cut to pieces by the attack of Saren and the Geth, the Forum Hotel offered a full view of the sweeping vista of the Presidium, though this was marred by the sheer volume of wreckage that had rained down on the Citadel after Sovereign's destruction. Repair crews had worked around the clock ever since to catalogue and dispose of the debris, but work still progressed slowly.

Shepard had woken up a day after passing out in a Zakera Wards Hospital, his arms covered in bandages and his vision swimming in painkillers and anesthetic. It had taken a full two days to finish tending to his multitude of injuries – mostly blood-loss and deep cuts – and Shepard had been released from the hospital with a tentatively clean bill of health. The incision marks from the IVs still irritated him, and he scratched at the one on his left wrist.

Events had moved rapidly since Shepard had awoken from sleep – so fast that they seemed difficult to keep track of. He had been lauded as a galactic hero – the saviour of the Citadel, of the Council, and even (by those who understood the magnitude of the threat Sovereign posed) of humanity itself. A thankful Council – saved by the heroic sacrifice of so many Alliance vessels and personnel – had offered humanity a seat on the Citadel Council – the object of desire for so long by humanity. The past five days had seen the beginning of the long process of political jockeying amongst Alliance heavyweights for the opportunity to represent humanity on the Citadel Council, and Shepard expected it to continue for several months. The remainder of the Geth fleet had scattered to the four winds- outrunning and outwitting many of the stranded Citadel fleets positioned at the Relays near the Terminus Systems – and Alliance and Hierarchy command both anticipated several months of cleanup efforts to stamp out the last pockets of Geth resistance that would inevitably materialize. The Alliance's losses had been heavy – though not catastrophic; eight cruisers, seventeen frigates, and severe damage to most of the Alliance's dreadnoughts and remaining cruisers. His former posting – the _Cairo_ – had been among those destroyed by Sovereign, and Shepard had both internally and externally mourned their loss – and what potentially could have been his own loss as well, had fate played a slightly different tune to the one it did.

Shepard smiled warmly as Liara glided into view from the sprawling bedroom, clad in an elegant dress of silver that accentuated the warm blue hue of her skin and the soft sapphire of her eyes. Though her eyes still contained traces of the sleep she had woken from scarcely twenty minutes before, there was already an air of warmth in them. Since Shepard had been released from the hospital, Liara had positively glowed with vitality and joy – having thought him dead, even if only for a moment, she was overjoyed that he had survived in relatively good health. Given his delicate state, they had been slow to resume physical contact with one another, but when they had finally melded for a second time two nights ago Shepard had felt a sense of completion beyond anything he had known before. She moved now to sit beside him, nuzzling her forehead against his collarbone as he pulled her close. She stilled as she simply focussed on the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed – at first laboured when he had awoken from his injuries, they were now measured and peaceful once more.

"Did Anderson and Hackett end up stopping by?" The queue of visitors to Shepard's hotel room had been near-endless over the past several days; Alliance commanders and admirals seeking to congratulate him, potential nominees for human positions on the Council seeking his advice and blessing, C-SEC and Council members offering him thanks for his actions on the Citadel. The Alliance had anticipated this and spared no expense in the room they had given him – a vast, massive bedroom with a full bathroom attached, as well as two sitting rooms that allowed for ample space for conferences and conversation with those who came by.

"They did – while you were showering." Hackett and Anderson had talked amicably with Shepard for close to half an hour – something that he hadn't had the opportunity to do until now. "Hackett's a Vice Admiral now – promoted the moment that Coryn made it through the Widow Relay, and there's talk that he'll be awarded the Palladium Star and practically every other medal that the Council can give him. Anderson's coordinating cleanup efforts in the Zakera Ward and the Presidium. Hackett has assumed command of cleanup operations – the remnants of the Fifth Fleet are already preparing to enter the Traverse to hunt down the remainder of the Geth. He wants us to join in the effort on the _Normandy_."

"And what do you want?"

Shepard sighed as Liara looked up into his eyes. He traced the lines of her collarbone with his free hand, eliciting shivers from her that rippled through them both. "I want peace. I want to live without fear that everything I know will end." He clenched his fist into a ball as he remembered what Hackett and Anderson had told him. "They don't want to believe that the Reaper threat exists – to them, Sovereign was merely a tool of Saren."

"So what will you do?"

"I'll fight for them – I'll fight their damn cleanup war against the Geth. Someone has to – and maybe we'll find some more definitive 'proof' of the Reapers along the way." He shifted Liara off of his knees as he moved to stand, "but I won't stay silent – not anymore."

Shepard shifted again to sit directly beside Liara, and he cupped her hands in his as he stared into her perfect sapphire eyes. There was something he had been meaning to say to her for several days now, a confession that remained unsaid even in their purest moments of connection at the height of the meld.

"Liara," his voice ached as he stared at her beautiful face, "when we met, I was a broken man. I was lost – without purpose, without a future, and without belief. I had endured so much, but I was broken in mind and spirit." He could feel tears welling in his own eyes, the force and implications of what he was saying overwhelming him, "but then you came into my life that day on Therum. You gave me meaning and purpose; you saved me from the darkness of my soul," he brought his hands to her waist, "I have someone to fight for now – a future worth spilling blood for. I will do that – if only to give this great hope a chance to blossom." He paused for a moment, letting his word collect themselves, "it's been nine days since we first melded – that's now the longest period of time I've ever gone without a single memory of Akuze coming back to me. It's the longest I've ever been able to sleep without fearing that I'd wake up screaming. I owe you my sanity, Liara."

Liara smiled as Shepard said the last part, and she briefly brought her lips to his and allowed them both to momentarily lose themselves in each other. "I would have died that day on Therum if you hadn't saved me." Shepard was about to speak again when Liara put a hand to his lips and drew him close to her. He allowed himself to forget the world around him as he concentrated solely on Liara's breathing and the magical scents, sights, and sounds of her body. They allowed themselves this brief respite from the world around them – from a Citadel torn by war and destruction, from a galaxy that while drawn back from the precipice, still lingered perilously close to utter annihilation. "If you owe me your mind, I owe you my body."

"I'll only fight if you'll fight with me," Shepard whispered as he lifted Liara back into his arms and began to carry her towards the master bedroom. "The Reapers are still out there – still waiting in dark space to strike at us. If we're going to end this, if we're going to drive them back into Dark Space and banish them from our galaxy forever, then I want to end it together."

He kissed her tenderly, and he didn't resist when she drew him down onto the bed beside him, flaring her biotics as they prepared to meld for the third time in as many days. For one day more, fighting Geth and the Reapers could wait. Though their victory could well be short-lived, they chose now to revel in it, if only for a moment.

"Shepard, can I ask you a very personal question?" Shepard paused his lips midway through their line down her collarbone, looking up at her thoughtfully as he began to thumb at the folds of her dress. "What do you see when we join minds?"

He did not answer, but rather sent a ripple of biotic energy through them both as he grasped her hand in hers and she initiated the meld. He never answered her as their minds blossomed into unison, but Liara felt Shepard's answer as their consciousness blurred together in their glorious bonding. He saw what she had given to his tortured soul, what he had given her on Therum, what they had delivered to the galaxy by destroying Sovereign. He saw what he hoped to give to the galaxy, what they hoped to create for those around them, and what they found – time after time – in each other's arms:

Salvation.

_Fin_.

**So that's that. _Salvation_ is finished, after nearly eight months of sketching, writing, editing, re-editing, and publishing.**

**It has been a pleasure to write for you all - and for my own enjoyment. ****Thank-you for your patience. **An enormous thank-you to everyone who took time to read and review, with a special thank-you to NotCras, who provided an excellent mind to bounce ideas off of when I was at impasses in the writing. 

**I can assure you that there is much more on the way where this came from. Ideally, _Mass Effect: Resurrection_ will be in a condition for publishing by May. I intend to detail in much greater depth Liara's struggles between ME and ME2. Don't worry; there's lots of exciting stuff on the way.**

**Until then, Godspeed.**


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